Music review: BBC SSO & Ilan Volkov, City Halls, Glasgow

BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow ****

There’s a side to neoclassicism that oozes unadulterated nostalgia, and the first half of this programme by the BBC SSO under Ilan Volkov proved it. The music was by Germaine Tailleferre – the only female member of the 1920s French composer group Les Six – and Poulenc, all of it brimming with sentimental effervescence.

It was also an instant reminder that, under the baton of someone they trust and respect, the SSO can be one of the most stirring and dynamic bands around. The juicy string sound Volkov elicited at the outset of Tailleferre’s ballet score Le Marchand d’oiseaux, was a measure of the sparkle and intensity to follow.

This music is tantalising, a restless confection that pits sweetness against sardonicism, melting harmony against brutish discord, but always with an unpredictability that leaves the brain permanently buzzing. Such virtuoso playing as Mark O’Keefe’s agile trumpet solo was the icing on this performance’s hi-octane excitability.

Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos served up more of the same, at least in terms of whimsicality and spirit. Volkov, with the help of the vivacious Duo Jatekok (pianists Naïri Badal and Adélaïde Panaget), captured the acid cartoonesque contradictions that make this concerto the kaleidoscopic adventure it is. The pianists obliged a cheering audience with encores that included a dizzy elaboration on Bizet’s famous Habanera.

The second half produced a eye-opening version of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony – how often does a conductor find such definition of texture and balance as Volkov did? – but it was ever-so-slightly let down by the necessity to use a digital organ. I’d love to have heard sure-footed organist Michael Bawtree deliver the final volcanic organ surges in what should have been Sunday’s repeat performance utilising the Usher Hall pipe organ, but sadly that performance has been cancelled.

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