Music review: The RSNO, Lahav Shani & Adrian Wilson
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Lahav Shani & Adrian Wilson ***
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Wilson gave rather a reserved, decidedly unshowy account, focusing attention squarely on the telling subtleties of his playing – his beautifully rounded sound, tonal flexibility, unforced phrase shaping. But maybe with a little more fantasy and flamboyance, he could have delved even more deeply into the music’s transcendental visions.
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Hide AdHis orchestral colleagues gave sharply defined support under young Israeli visiting conductor Lahav Shani, who had summoned a determined, demonstrative Dvořák Carnival Overture with his sometimes brusque gestures – rousing, if also a little raucous. It’s tempting for any conductor to want to stamp their mark on Beethoven’s epoch-defining Eroica Symphony, but for Shani, that seemed to involve ponderous tempos, a frustrating smoothing over of Beethoven’s dramatic contrasts, and an almost complete absence of wit, grit or swagger. It was a pleasant, well-meaning account, unencumbered by period considerations, but where was the energy, the revolutionary zeal? Instead, Shani made parts of the first movement sound like note-spinning, and took the second movement’s funeral march so glacially slowly that it became a hesitant lament – with sometimes ragged entries from apparently confused orchestral players. With so much thought and energy devoted to the Symphony over the centuries, Shani’s reading just wasn’t convincing.