BBCSSO, 08/12/2022

Dvořák : Othello, Concert Overture

Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Sir Stephen Hough, piano)

Sibelius : Lemminkäinen Suite

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Nuno Coelho

A late change of conductor meant that instead of starting with some Johan Svendsen that I'd been quite looking forward to discovering, we got the last of the trilogy of symphonic poems Dvořák collectively entitled Nature, Life and Love.  If the "Carnival" Overture is by far and away the best known of these, Othello probably comes next, thanks to a proper ear-worm of a jealousy theme, very short, but insistently memorable.  It's more of a composer's impression of the play, rather than a blow-by-blow account - he would have written an opera, had he wished that - but it was delivered with plenty of swagger by Nuno Coelho and the orchestra.

For a Thursday afternoon, the City Halls was remarkably well-attended, but of course, that's what you get when arguably the world's most popular piano concerto is on the bill, with Stephen Hough as the soloist.  It was certainly his show; although the orchestra performed well, they were rather taking a back seat to Hough's eloquent and elegant playing, and he dominated the proceedings effortlessly.  A restrained presence at the keyboard, he played with absolute clarity, the pedalling immaculate and the cascades of notes rolling from his fingertips with definition and purpose.  It was maybe not quite truly Slavic, there was a little too much control for that, but it was both impressive and satisfying, broodingly mysterious in the first movement, dreamily melancholic in the second and proudly confident in the third, and a winning performance all round.

One does not often get the chance to hear the complete set of Sibelius's Lemminkäinen Legends in one go; the Swan of Tuonela gets played often enough, and the third and fourth get the occasional solo outing too, but Sibelius did intend these pieces to be played together, and after a fashion, they could be considered a form of symphony, with an alluring first movement in (approximate) sonata form, an intense slow movement, a sinister scherzo and an exultant finale.  

It was perhaps a consequence of the late change of conductor (we received notification on Monday), but I found the strings at the start of both the first and last movements lacking in clarity of articulation, with a blurring of those little turns with which Sibelius often decorates his melodic lines.  Fortunately, by the time the dance melody comes to be developed, they had regained precision, and the rest of the movement played out with a lively feeling for the 'bounce' of the dance.  The Swan was suitably still and dark, with good solos from cor anglais and cello, while the shivering menace of the land of Tuonela was well expressed in the third movement.  Finally, after another slightly blurred start, the galloping rhythms of the last movement came into their own, and propelled the finale, and the whole concert, to a triumphant conclusion.  

[Next : 22nd December]