EIF Music reviews: Bruce Liu Plays Ravel | Hugh Cutting & George Ireland

Bruce Liu Plays Ravel – NCPA Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

★★★★☆

China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra chose an eclectic mix of mainly French repertoire for the opening concert of their first European tour with conductor Myung-Whun Chung.

Qigang Chen’s Wu Xing (the Five Elements) displayed a variety of influences, not least from his teacher Messiaen, and a penchant for vibrant orchestral colour writ large. Although the movements were short, the orchestra animated each element’s distinct character.

Drawing on Basque and jazz music, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major never quite settled despite the best efforts of soloist Bruce Liu in this underwhelming performance. However, there were some nice passages such as the breathy harp glissandi in the allegramente and the piano’s slightly off-key meanderings in the hypnotic waltz tethered by the lilting cor anglais. It was only in his encore, Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu Op 66, that Liu’s considerable talent shone.

The highlight of the evening was the orchestra’s consummate reading, under Chung’s exacting command, of Saint-Saëns’s third ‘organ’ symphony. There were stand out contributions from the oboe, bassoon and not least Hansjörg Albrecht on organ. He had to settle with moody underpinning chords initially before announcing the grandiose theme that brings the work to a rousing conclusion..

SUSAN NICKALLS

READ MORE: The best EIF classical concerts - Scotsman critic David Kettle previews the 2025 programme

Hugh Cutting & George Ireland

Queen’s Hall

★★★★★

In pulling together a programme of a dozen or so songs and a handful of complementary solo piano pieces under the title of ‘Untethered’, countertenor Hugh Cutting, with pianist George Ireland, gave a uniquely personal response to the EIF’s 2025 theme, The Truth We Seek. While too often used as a clichéd analogy, the duo actually did take their audience on a journey through the strength of their curation of a hand-picked variety of different pieces, with all of them calling the listener to be in their moment.

Cutting’s is a beautifully focussed voice, dynamics deployed and controlled with consistency across his high voice range. Running each song into the next gave natural and authentic flow to each of the morning recital’s two sections, with Monteverdi and Handel opera extracts offering a glimpse of Cutting’s unaffected flair for the stage. In the second half, the vulnerability of emotion ran deeper and darker, being particularly reflective in Hahn’s A Chloris. Specially written for Cutting, two of Piers Connor Kennedy’s Rough Rhymes from 2017 were both sorrowful and redemptive, and encouraging of hearing more from his setting of words by English poet Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy.

CAROL MAIN

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