Classical review: SCO/Nicola Benedetti, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

FROM the rasping natural trumpets and the crisp, hard-edged timpani strokes in the opening item – excerpts from Gluck’s opera Orfeo et Euridice – this was clearly going to be a concert high on period detail.

FROM the rasping natural trumpets and the crisp, hard-edged timpani strokes in the opening item – excerpts from Gluck’s opera Orfeo et Euridice – this was clearly going to be a concert high on period detail.

But conductor Christian Curnyn’s precise, energetic direction ensured a warm, luminous sound from the SCO that was all rounded edges and elegant phrasing – miles away from the harshness that puts some listeners off historically informed performance.

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Curnyn really came into his own in a sparkling suite from Rameau’s opera Les Paladins, which he managed to make both poignant and hilarious. The SCO instrumentalists rose magnificently to the challenges of the composer’s sometimes outlandish writing, with twittering piccolos and pounding drums.

But the reason the Usher Hall was filled to the rafters was the presence of Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Her Vivaldi taster before the interval – the concerto Il grosso Mogul – showed off her effortlessly graceful playing in a strangely stop-start piece. Its recitative-like slow movement, though, proved an ideal showcase for Benedetti’s unassuming virtuosity.

But she and Curnyn managed to make Vivaldi’s well-loved Four Seasons sound entirely fresh and new, and their performance crackled with electricity.

Her vision was high on contrasts – with an urgent Summer and a brisk, bracing Autumn – and she made some risky moves in varying her tone and articulation.

But they more than paid off, and the beautifully realised slow movement from Winter, with Benedetti hushed against a rippling orchestral backdrop, got a second airing as a well-deserved encore.

Rating: *****

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