Revew: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - City Halls, Glasgow

ACCORDING to Sally Beamish, she spent three times as long orchestrating Debussy’s Suite for cello and orchestra than she did writing her own cello concertos. Well, they were hours well spent, because this previously “lost” work has been gloriously found, and the cello repertoire is all the richer for it.

Having been asked by cellist Steven Isserlis to bring the piece back to life, Beamish was initially wary – taking on the work of a master orchestrator is no small feat. Especially tonight, where it followed Debussy’s epic La Mer, a piece the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with Donald Runnicles at the helm, filled with all the drama and excitement it deserves.

But if La Mer was a thriller, the cello suite was a fairytale filled with colour. There was romance in the Rêverie, playfulness in the Scherzo and bittersweet emotion in the Nocturne. Throughout, Isserlis looked as happy playing Beamish’s orchestration as we did listening to it.

The programme of French music continued, with three works by Ravel – although at first it felt as though we’d travelled to Russia. Isserlis delivered Deux mélodies hébraïques, a work originally composed for voice, setting Jewish prayers to melody. Isserlis really does make his instrument sing, and the poignancy of this short work had the audience transfixed.

Eschewing the delicate beauty and subtlety of the earlier works, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and La Valse: poème choréographique brought the night to a rousing close.

RATING: ****