Music

RCS Symphony Orchestra

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

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AS a young conductor noted to me last year, there is no shortage of ambition in the works tackled by young musicians in Scotland. Youth and student ensembles are playing some of the biggest pieces in the repertoire, in part, no doubt because they afford the opportunity for the largest number of instrumentalists to participate. It is for a similar reason – the quality of the candidates – that the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland currently has two Leverhulme Conducting Fellows, Korean June-Sung Park and Englishman Joel Sandelson, both of whom were on the podium here before one of their teachers, SCO Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen took charge of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Sandelsohn’s flowing direction of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments was the exception to the big-is-best rule. He seemed less assured on the slower music than the brisk passages, and particularly the opening, when the dedication and debt to Debussy seemed especially clear. This first ensemble was also distinguished by having an entirely-female brass section. Well done on that one, RCS.

June-Sung Park took charge of Rory Boyle’s new orchestral version of his brass band work, Muckle Flugga, with the composer present to hear it. Some rhythmic inconsistencies apart, Park marshalled the vast forces the piece is scored for with admirable precision and built to the climax with skill. There were very fine individual performances, particularly from the low winds and the brass again.

Mahler’s Song of the Earth, a six-movement symphony with tenor and mezzo soloists, was also full of fine ingredients, but suffered some balance problems. There was no shortage of muscle from the horns at the start, but that was not matched elsewhere, while tenor William Morgan was a little swamped. The third movement, Von der Jugend, seemed more his thing, while mezzo Fiona Joice also took a while to find her feet. As in other Mahler symphonies, the female voice does more of the heavy lifting as the work progresses, and Joice was much more poised by the concluding Der Abschied.