Music
RSNO
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
five stars
IT is correct to note the wide range of music that is now routinely is part of the work of an orchestra in one season – and the distance between playing the soundtrack to the film Amadeus to accompany screenings a fortnight ago and this finale to the 2016/17 programme is an obvious example of that ¬– but it is also worth remarking on the breadth of the audience for Scotland’s national orchestra these days.
The RSNO management is understandably delighted that concerts of film music bring fresh faces into the big halls of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but it is in many ways just as impressive that the Concert Hall is so well filled with people willing to share the challenging journey that is Mahler’s Third Symphony, an hour and half of hugely varied and multi-hued music, with an opening movement that is an epic undertaking for everyone on its own.
If you are tuned in by then ¬– and from my seat in the stalls music director Peter Oundjian had the balance just about perfect, as the harps of Pippa Tunnell and Sharon Griffiths signalled that we were nearing the end of that march ¬– the following five movements unfold as a sequence of contrasting delights. Mellow dance music, invocations of the countryside, and echoes of music we have heard under other conductors during the season ¬ – all of these ingredients made the choice of the symphony as a concluding statement absolutely apposite.
The special ingredients of mezzo Susan Platts, returning after being part of the vast cast for Mahler’s Eighth three seasons ago, the women of the RSNO Chorus, and the younger women of the Junior Chorus, all made superb contributions, the soloist’s rich tone ideally suited to the role and the precision pulse and pitch of the girls’ voices mesmerising.
The dynamic intensity of the closing sixth movement was Oundjian at his masterly best, the culmination of a demonstration of ensemble sound in which the RSNO strings reigned supreme, and to be even more particular, the moments when the focus was on the cellos and basses absolutely undeniably world class.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here