The RSNO

The Usher Hall

It is Valentine's night at the Usher Hall and there is a very big audience, no doubt as many are taking their partners for a romantic night out, but also because the SNO has lined up a night of popular musical lollipops based on romantic themes. The orchestra are conducted tonight by visiting conductor Michael Seal, who is associate conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He seemed to be at home with the orchestra, and they were very much at home with this popular music, which gave great scope for the talented musicians of the SNO.

The concert began with Bizet's Carmen Suites 1 and 2, which brought the colours and rhythms of Spain to a cold night in Edinburgh. The orchestra and the audience loved it, but of course it's worth remembering that love ended in death in Carmen. Mind you, it often does in opera!

This was followed by the Adagio from Khachaturian's Spartacus which reminded us of the recent death of Kirk Douglas who played him in the film, although as David Kettle pointed out in his programme notes it probably reminded older audience members of the BBC's Onedin Line! Written for the ballet Spartacus, which got its first staging in Leningrad in 1956, it was a great success and helped rehabilitate the composer in Soviet Russia. Highlight of the night was Grieg's very famous piano concerto in A Minor, played by young British-Romanian pianist, Florian Mitrea, who had previously performed with the SNO in 2017, when he won second prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition. He played it with great feeling, perhaps somewhat slower than usual, but with great effect.The orchestra accompanied him perfectly, particularly Katherine Bryan on the flute, and he got a great response from the audience. He rewarded us with an encore of a Mozart sonata.

After the interval, more lollipops, beginning with Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture, which has delighted ballet lovers ever since its first performance in 1870, although again a theme of love and death! Next we had the Adagio from Mahler's Symphony No 5 which was made famous by Visconti's film Death in Venice. It is a gorgeous melody. The final work was Ravel's Bolero, which is notable for the longest snare drum music in classical music, and he got a great cheer at the end. Also notable was some fine flute playing from Katherine Bryan. It ended with a great musical climax to take us into the cold February night and to think about love, but not forgetting death!