Not everybody will have realised that the conductor for the night, Thomas Søndergård, was appointed the Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra earlier in the week - too late for the programme notes. His three year term begins at the start of the next season and he will be conducting three concerts each season.
Those of us who knew were, naturally, all the more interested how this highly regarded 42 year Danish man would fare. Suffice it to say that at the very end nearly every member of the Orchestra was clapping in appreciation of his night’s leadership. We did not hear him speak but he did make the special gesture at the end to work his way through to the back to say farewell to Brian Forshaw, Principal Cornet, who has been with the RSNO for thirty five years.
The concert took the normal form of three works. Each with a character of its own but interestingly the full complement of players, over 90, was only needed for the final work. We saw about two thirds start the concert, and the middle work was down to one third. Who does what to fill in time behind the scenes must be interesting.
Ravel’s seven waltzes were a bright and cheerful start. Originally written for the piano the composer orchestrated the work for a French ballet company. Whilst the programme notes told us that they would be played without interruption, the short gap - enough to catch one’s breath - was probably better.
I find much of Haydn’s music very satisfying and his Cello Concerto No 1, only discovered in 1961, particularly enjoyable. In the second movement the cornets had their turn, cello and flute in the third and violas in the final. Perhaps the panache that Natalie Clein brought to the solo part went a long way to make this a first class performance. Her encore was the saraband from Bach’s Cello Suite in C major.
After the interval the small sized Orchestra was augmented by just about everybody for the four movements of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Strong, powerful and yet lyrical, it was written at the end of the Second World War when victory was very much in sight.
Event: Friday 21 October 2011 7.30pm