Gig review: RSNO Summer Pops

THURSDAY'S Summer Pops programme may have been called Britain's Top of the Pops, but – like the World Cup – the majority of its focus was on England. The reason, I imagine, is simple: that the orchestra is keeping its tartan powder dry for this weekend's Scottish Proms concerts, when mass bagpipes will do for to the RSNO what vuvuzelas have done for football coverage.

But before the series' affable presenter and conductor Jeff Tyzik dons a kilt, his task midweek was to weave his personable magic on music as diverse as his own Lennon & McCartney arrangements, tub-thumping marches by Walton and Eric Coates, Hollywood's view of England through the eyes of Korngold's score for the 1930s film The Adventures of Robin Hood, and the mischievous Cornish twang of Malcolm Arnold.

Tyzik has clearly struck a chord with the RSNO over the past week or two. There's a matter-of-factness about his conducting style that ensures clean-cut delivery of the music. But the real stimulus comes from his character – an American charm which reveals itself in the easy-flowing chat between each musical number.

Which is what enabled this eclectic programme to flit seamlessly between Walton's stirring Crown Imperial March and Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady, Grainger's beautiful Irish Tune from County Derry and Alford's (not his real name for royalty reasons, Tyzik informed us) Colonel Bogey March, and as a stirring finale, Arnold's whisky-flavoured Scottish Dances and Tyzik's silk threaded arrangement of James Bond themes.

The Summer Pops series appears to be drawing many new faces, youngsters included. The RSNO should pursue it again next year.