Music review: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City Halls Glasgow

Published on Friday 11 March 2011 19:06

MUSIC BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CITY HALLS, GLASGOW ***

WAGNER, Elgar and Sibelius. The potential for this combination of weighty composers to be greater than the sum of its parts may not have been fully achieved in this mouthwatering BBC SSO programme, but under Andrew Litton's direction there was no shortage of thrills.

Perhaps the least satisfying outcome was the performance of Wagner's overture to Parsifal. The opera itself is momentous, a great heaving edifice that hauls itself forward by means of massive measured chunks of organic mass. If the overture is a microcosm of that, then the inevitability of its heaving momentum is a must. Litton's careful reading had gravitas and poise, but not always a gripping sense of direction.

Enter the young cellist Johannes Moser, whose dynamic presence filled Elgar's Cello Concerto with unflinching energy and revealing fascination. He's a big lad, and so is the exuberant tone he draws from his instrument. He captured the mercurial essence of Elgar's music, with a zing of freshness. All of this took time to settle, partly due to Litton's seemingly over-managed beat. But as the American conductor loosened up and let the music take care of itself, everything slipped into a well-oiled groove. In the end, it was a captivating experience, Moser's return to the opening flourish in the final bars hitting the whole point of this concerto well and truly home.

There are many ways to play Sibelius, as Glasgow audiences know better than most. For Litton, the seething First Symphony is one whose rhetoric is its foremost quality. This performance lived for the mighty climaxes and the full-blooded tunes. If we lost sight of its icier underlay and the raw wind textures in the process, the thrill factor helped compensate.