Music review: BBC SSO & Bomsori Kim, City Halls, Glasgow
BBC SSO & Bomsori Kim, City Halls, Glasgow ****
As a robust statement to end a concert season, a Bruckner symphony is certainly a profound option – especially the Seventh, among the most warm-hearted and instantly appealing of the Austrian composer’s symphonies and the one that belatedly made his name in 1884.
Most impressive of all in this performance was chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth’s judicious handling of his sizeable SSO forces (unlike in his feral Glasgow Verdi Requiem a few weeks ago). Here, the music ebbed and flowed, erupted and receded within expressive parameters that conformed to the modest City Hall acoustics. The journey was as comfortable as it was momentous. Eighty minutes flew by.
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The opening movement evolved as one gripping, organic colossus, Bruckner’s captivating seed theme soaked in the visionary intent that gives the piece its potency. The final crescendo evoked a sunburst. The elegiac enchantment of the Adagio was coloured by the sombre tones of Wagner tubas, rustic hints enlivened the Scherzo, and the finale released exhilaration from the underlying clutches of solemnity.
There were moments where niggly details rocked the boat – occasional untidy entries and internal ensemble balance – but the overall impact was convincing and altogether consuming.
Not everything in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, which prefaced the Bruckner, felt as comfortable. It began so well, South Korean soloist Bomsori Kim’s penetrating tone instantly arresting, a heroic presence above the shimmering strings. Yet interest waned as the orchestra maintained an innocuous stance, unchecked by Wigglesworth who seemed content to adopt a mostly uneventful position of subordination.
Where Bomsori broke free, especially in the dizzying finale, magic did happen, but it was in her solo encore that her fiery, folk-fuelled virtuosity took untamed flight.