Classical review: Philharmonia Orchestra, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

The first thing to strike you was the massed battery of percussion crammed on to the back of the Usher Hall stage – all manner of xylophones, vibraphones, cowbells, tubular bells, even Caribbean steel drums and a huge thunder sheet, and all for the Unsuk Chin Violin Concerto.

Philharmonia Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Star rating: * * * *

But we shouldn’t have worried about a sonic onslaught: it was a beautifully subtle, scintillating piece, carried off with superb charm – and a touch of theatrical bravura – by German violinist Viviane Hagner. As it rightly should be – Hagner even advised Korean-born Chin when she was writing the piece in 2001.

The concerto won contemporary music’s biggest award, the Grawemeyer Prize, in 2004, and with its ebullient wit, ear-tweaking orchestral sounds and engaging sense of playfulness, you could see why.

There were a few passages where Chin’s extraordinary orchestral textures simply swamped the soloist – who spent most of her time up in the stratospheric reaches of her instrument anyway. But it was the perfect piece for conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s vivid, dramatic approach, and the Philharmonia Orchestra responded with gloriously characterful playing.

Salonen followed it with a high-voltage, yet unhurried account of the Bruckner Fourth Symphony that positively revelled in the work’s huge scale, with soaring melodies and massive, resounding climaxes that set him springing around on the podium like a man possessed.

The Philharmonia strings sounded a little thin at times, although the brass were magnificent in the glowing chorales, and Salonen ensured a sense of organic growth throughout. The monumental grandeur seemed an odd partner for Chin’s fragile beauty, but there was no denying the dramatic impact of both pieces.