This was the Romantic Valentine’s Concert with the men of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in white jacket and black tie and the women in a beautiful array of plain coloured dresses, all helping to make for a joyous evening.
On to the red carpeted podium, in place of an indisposed Christian Vásquez, came the young and vibrant conductor Benjamin Shwartz. Raised in Los Angeles and Israel, he has recently completed a three season tenure as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, where he assisted Michael Tilson Thomas, and was Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien was written whilst on a tour of Europe and was composed as a souvenir of Italy. The opening fanfare makes it a well loved and familiar work.
The chairs and desks were moved around in order to bring on the concert grand piano for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 - another great favourite right from its outset when in a moment the pianist makes her first move.
The pianist was the twenty-two year old German-Japanese Alice Sara Ott and what a polished and graceful performance she gave us. As she walked to and from the piano in her flowing dress I am sure she was bare-footed. At the critical moments there was clear eye contact between pianist and conductor, both young and attractive. The applause prompted her to give us an encore - Liszt’s La Campanella.
After the interval came Tchaikovsky’ Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No 5 with its lovely opening of mellow strings and harp, and finishing with Ravel’s Boléro demonstrating the Principal Trombonist’s youthful talent.
Event: Friday 11 February 2011, 7.30pm