Classical review: St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

ANYONE that has even only dipped momentarily into the plastic world of the TV talent show will have heard the cringeworthy phrase “you owned that song”.

In the case of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony it is, of course, literally true, in that it the latter was written for the former.

Proof of ownership was laid bare in a scorching second half performance by the Russian orchestra, under its maestro Yuri Temirkanov, to a packed house last night at the Usher Hall.

From the cocktail of moods that permeate the opening movement, to the bare-knuckle, some would say empty, rejoicing of the final moments, this was a performance that crackled, wept, tormented and danced with all the bittersweet ambiguity Shostakovich probably intended it to have.

And it was in this part of the concert that we heard the true quality of a band historically known for its molten string tone (the pungent, desolate calm of the Largo), the piquancy of its wind section (the ironic convulsions of the Petrushka-esque dance in the opening movement) and the bronzed polish of its well-balanced brass section.

In stark comparison, the start of the evening was a mixture of disappointment and apprehension.

It ranged from a performance of Prokofiev’s “Classical” symphony that stuttered into action, thanks to some tentatively raw playing at the start from the violins, and seemed stylistically awkward; to one of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concertos that produced anything but a vintage performance by fellow Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev.

Littered with wrong notes, and taken at such a speed that the ferocious octave passage work seemed almost like a caricature of itself, this was not the Alexeev we once knew from his many previous visits to Scotland.

A night of very mixed fortunes.