Music review: RSNO, Patrick Hahn & Vadym Kholodenko, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Conductor Patrick Hahn’s chemistry with the RSNO was electrifying, writes Ken Walton

RSNO, Patrick Hahn & Vadym Kholodenko, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall *****

Last November the 28-year-old Austrian-born conductor Patrick Hahn was an instant hit as last-minute stand-in with the RSNO. So impressed were the orchestra they pounced and secured him as their new principal guest conductor. This fast-acting opportunism was vindicated over the weekend when Hahn returned to rekindle this magical rapport.

He brought with him an obscure eye-opener, Capriccio by the lesser-know Austrian Gottfried von Einem, premiered in 1943 by the Berlin Philharmonic just as Germany’s wartime fortunes were about to hit the skids. Yet this is a fundamentally joyous piece, influences ranging from the ghost of Wagner to the dry acidity of Einem’s teacher Hindemith, with brief incursions into jazz. Hahn captured its riotous contrasts: frenetic mischief giving way to luxurious tenderness and volcanic Romantic nostalgia. His chemistry with the orchestra was as composed as it was electrifying.

Patrick Hahn PIC: Kow Iida

As it also was with Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko in Liszt’s relatively short Piano Concerto No 1. Kholodenko’s probing intensity, the sheer physicality of his delivery, was a constant driving force, mesmerising from start to finish. Hahn set the tone with a biting orchestral opening, responded to pugnaciously by the pianist, whose ensuing dialogues with successive instrumentalists were as intoxicating as the rhapsodic opulence of his own solos. Inner volatility made every upcoming moment an exhilarating and unpredictable revelation.

Hahn himself offered fresh insight into Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2, not least his quest to unearth detail so often swamped by more untamed approaches. There was no holding back on the discursive vigour of the opening movement, the iridescent thrill of the scherzo, the emotional timelessness of the Adagio, or the scintillating inevitability of the Finale. But there was an uncommon finesse that unblurred the edges. Hahn and the RSNO have promising times ahead.