Music review: BBC SSO & Alpesh Chauhan, Aberdeen Music Hall

Something worrying has happened to the Aberdeen Music Hall acoustics. Following the two-year closure to undertake the £9 million refurbishment, it reopened last week, the first 'symphonic' test being Saturday's visit by the BBC SSO.

The BBC SSO

BBC SSO & Alpesh Chauhan, Aberdeen Music Hall ***

Now painted a brave battleship grey and shorn of its chandeliers, there’s something very all-purpose about the new-look main auditorium. But what was once a near-perfect orchestral acoustic seems to have acquired problematic idiosyncrasies, gremlins that surfaced with troubling regularity.

What else would explain the loss of audibility of the upper strings in Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite, despite the players’ visibly valiant attempts? Is there something in the new stage fabric that prevented the wind and brass synchronising perfectly with the strings? In Sibelius’ Symphony No2 that discrepancy extended at one point to almost an entire beat.

It didn’t appear to be conductor Alpesh Chauhan’s fault. His beat was crisp and incisive, his musical visions of all three works possessing sufficient passion and integrity to rise above the obstacles. There was acerbic irony and sizzling warmth in the Prokofiev, a ravishing slow movement in Grieg’s Piano Concerto (soloist Freddy Kempf relishing the tonal evenness of the hall’s impressive new piano) and thrilling peaks – though not enough timbral edge – in the Sibelius.

During the interval a plumbing emergency caused the inconvenient closure of the main toilets. That constitutes a teething problem. Re-establishing the wonderful old acoustics, however, will take more than an emergency plumber. Attention required. - Ken Walton