SCO & Pekka Kuusisto, Edinburgh review: 'a joyful romp'

SCO & Pekka Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★

Whenever violinist Pekka Kuusisto comes to town, SCO audiences know they’re in for a treat. On this occasion Kuusisto was joined by pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, with whom he shared the soloist and conducting roles, and this dynamic duo led the orchestra through a gravity-defying programme.

Timo Andres’s uncompromising piano concerto The Blind Banister was a masterclass in orchestration, with no instrumental range left untapped. Misty string harmonics and shrill piccolo cries were weighted by the contrabassoon and bass clarinet and softened with glittering percussion. At the heart of this maelstrom, Crawford-Phillips delivered everything from jazz riffs to terrifying clumps of chords marching up and down the keyboard with relentless virtuosity. Who would have guessed this piece evolved from a Beethoven cadenza?

Pekka Kuusisto | Kaapo Kamu

Despite its German title, Thomas Adès’ work for orchestra and solo violin, Märchentänze, takes the English dance form and gives it a modern twist. The opener with its boisterous instrumental chit-chat felt like a boozy night out, and this was followed by a serene pizzicato theme, with Kuusisto hugging the violin to his ear to pluck the strings. A skylark for Jane, the only named movement, saw a beautiful violin melody take dizzy flight as it chased itself around the orchestra as if in an echo chamber. The finale, however, out-rhythmed itself in its ambitions and rather lost its way.

Inspired by Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Sally Beamish’s composition Whitescape explores the icy wastes of the Arctic. With Crawford-Phillips conducting, the orchestra evoked a bleak landscape where the dazzling glissandi of strings and percussion were undermined by an agitated and sinister Jaws-like theme in the cellos and basses.

These compelling contemporary offerings were framed by Britten’s Young Apollo – a tightly constructed fanfare for piano, string quartet and string orchestra - and Haydn’s radiant Symphony No.88, a joyful romp from start to finish.

READ MORE: BBC SSO & Fazal Qureshi, Glasgow review: 'intoxicating'