Music review: BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow

A combination of Elena Langer’s quirky orchestral suite “Figaro Gets a Divorce” and the colossal joint tour de force of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto and Dohnányi’s First Symphony took Thursday’s BBC SSO concert well beyond the customary end-time, but what it offered was a mixture of wit, wonderment and curiosity.
Violinist Karen GomyoViolinist Karen Gomyo
Violinist Karen Gomyo

BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow ****

Langer’s suite, a series of scene-setters, character sketches and madcap finale derived from an opera that projects the antics of Beaumarchais’ Figaro and company into the 1930s, proved a light-hearted opener. Under Hungarian conductor Gergely Madaras, humour (from Keystone Cops “Escape” music, to a lugubrious tango depicting The Major) and atmosphere (from shimmering nocturnal scents to the final cinematic blaze) were vying qualities in an effervescent performance.

Enter violinist Karen Gomyo, whose brooding, burnished tone cut to the core of the Shostakovich, the subdued intensity of the opening, the snappy mischief of the scherzo, the gravitas of the Passacaglia before the emotional release of its cadenza, and driven energy of the Burlesque, all came together as one powerful, glowering entity.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Madaras’ hold on the SSO elicited single-minded vision, essential in getting some conviction out of Dohnányi’s long-winded First Symphony. It takes a Brucknerian view, an hour-long coach trip from minor to major, but without the progressive momentum to make the journey bearable.

Yes, there was fire and self-belief in this performance, loving themes emerged, with gloriously ripe textures and intoxicating rhythmic surprises. But as a symphonic journey it takes too many wrong turns.

KEN WALTON

Related topics: