RSNO, 06/11/2021

Rautavaara : Cantus Arcticus - Swans Migrating

Glanert : Violin Concerto No. 2 "To the Immortal Beloved" (Midori, violin)

Dvorák : Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Thomas Søndergård

I 'discovered' Rautavaara's hauntingly beautiful Cantus Arcticus at a concert some fifteen years ago, and have loved it ever since, which is why I was somewhat miffed to realise that we were only getting one movement in tonight's RSNO concert.  It was, arguably, the best one, a slow, glorious swell of sound, with the indescribable chatter of a flight  of swans blending subtly with the haze of tremolo strings and the plaintive swirl of the woodwinds.  The inheritance from Sibelius, his world of dark, eldritch forests, and cold, windswept open spaces is never clearer than here, mysterious, intangible and bewitching.

Detlev Glanert is a highly successful German composer, principally of operas, as he currently has 15 of them to his name, but his catalogue does not lack in other domains.  None of the operas, however, have been produced in Britain to my knowledge, and I cannot recall hearing anything else of his music, though he has featured at the Proms a few times - unfortunately, I'm usually out of the country during Proms season, so I tend to miss these things.  If this new Violin Concerto is characteristic of his writing, his style tends to the dramatic and the lyrical, with richly textured orchestration.  Inspired by Beethoven's famous, unsent love letter, the concerto falls into three sections corresponding to the three periods of the letter, though it plays, more or less, as a single movement, the start of each section marked by a single, forceful, drum stroke.  There's a substantial orchestral introduction before the violin enters, initially almost timidly, on a thread of sound, but the second entry is more assertive.  The thematic material in the first movement seemed almost like those memory tests, where each time the sequence of notes plays, an extra one is added at the end, constantly winding up and out, while at the other end of the piece, it seemed to be folding in on itself.  

There are deliciously aqueous textures in the orchestra at times, from using the harp and celesta in combination, on the other hand, I found the solo violin having to play extremely aggressive pizzicati which seemed obtrusive to me.  However, Midori was an expressive, intense and committed interpreter, displaying a truly impressive range of techniques and timbres, and some very interesting pitch effects at times, and there were also some really striking moments when the soloist was being echoed by the orchestra's leader in such a way that it sounded like one instrument doing something completely impossible. At around 40 minutes, though, I think the work is too long and sometimes overly melodramatic.  I'd certainly rather have had the remaining ten minutes of the Rautavaara, and a shorter version of the concerto, but I would listen to it again.

Dvorák's 9th is far more familiar territory, of course, though I remain firmly of the belief that the symphony is very little about America, and almost wholly about Bohemia.  It is "From the New World", not "Of the New World", and Dvorák was certainly quite homesick during his American years.  Søndergård was being very flexible with his tempi tonight; in the first movement, it wasn't too noticeable, but the resultant push-and-pull became too conspicuous in the second movement for my tastes.  On the other hand, it worked well for the Scherzo, and the Finale is somewhat episodic in nature anyway, so there were reasonable grounds for his choices there too.  The occasional squawk from the horns was offset by excellent playing from the winds in general, notably a particularly lovely clarinet solo in the last movement.  

[Next : 11th November]