SCO, Ryan Bancroft & Eric Lu, Edinburgh review: 'an evening full of treats'

Ryan Bancroft | B. Ealovega

SCO, Ryan Bancroft & Eric Lu, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★

Sibelius’s grand, majestic Fifth Symphony, played by the intimate forces of a chamber orchestra? Young California-born conductor Ryan Bancroft seems convinced it can work, as he revealed in these pages just a week or so ago. And his nimble, buoyant, glistening account with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra was indeed entirely persuasive.

Okay, it might have lacked the sheer sonic splendour of a full symphonic band, but it more than made up for it with lithe power, textural transparency and delicate lyricism, from the unstoppable momentum of its first movement speed-up – which Bancroft kept on a tight leash, then released to run free – to the disarming gracefulness of its middle movement. And those famous horns in its finale? Bancroft held things back at first, only to let them surge forward at the key-change – and his negotiation of the theme’s return, quiet and skittering across strings and woodwind, was fragile and exquisite.

He had a winning way with orchestral detail, bringing out seldom heard inner parts, but most remarkable throughout was his evident love for the Symphony, and his sincere, authentic responses as a result.

There were some unusual decisions in the concert’s earlier Grieg Piano Concerto, too – not least the rather ponderous tempo of the opening movement, which offered more wistful introspection than determined drama. But it worked a treat, providing fresh insights into Grieg’s bittersweet writing, and allowing Bancroft’s compatriot Eric Lu the ideal setting for his thoughtful, elegant playing.

Not that Lu lacked power or brilliance – there were plenty of both in the Concerto’s fizzing keyboard fireworks, dutifully dispatched with steely precision. But at times it was almost as if he were playing Mozart, or – dare I say it – Schubert, whose A flat Impromptu provided his deeply considered encore.

To open, the gentle, captivating Lucioles by Swede Andrea Tarrodi was as sweet, colourful and ultimately insubstantial as candyfloss. But it was an evening full of treats, from a conductor with plenty new to say.