Classical concert review: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - City Halls, Glasgow

WHEN its chief conductor Donald Runnicles is in town, the BBC SSO pulls out all the stops. How often do you get an orchestral programme with a top-notch concerto soloist in one half, and a trio of world-class singers in the second, where even the music – Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier – is gloriously extravagant?

We didn’t get the entire Strauss opera, but an hour-long concision of Runnicles’ own making, centring on those parts that indulge in the sexual chemistry of the Marschallin, Sophie and Octavian.

All three singers – sopranos Twyla Robinson, Lucy Crowe and mezzo-soprano Daniela Sindram respectively – played their parts with absorbing theatricality, giving this concert performance a riveting sense of style and animated presence.

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But the music itself holds the power to convey the spicy eroticism of the plot. Runnicles set the pace and tone in the overture, a supercharged concoction with champagne fizz. Once the singers made their indelible mark – Robinson’s saucy superiority, Sindram’s oak-grained interpretation of the male Marschallin role, and the soaring effortlessness of Lucy Crowe’s Sophie – the journey to the rapt finale was one of genuine pleasure.

Violinist Vilde Frang’s first half performance of Mozart’s pseudo-operatic Violin Concerto No 5 was the perfect complement to the Strauss. Played with impeccable technique, and a sound that was as sweet as it was stylish, we witnessed, in this Norwegian’s return SSO visit, a true star.

Rating: *****

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