BBC SSO & Sir Mark Elder, Glasgow review: 'ripe Russian Romanticism'

Mix and match as much of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty as you like and you still end up with ballet music that is exquisite, dramatic, compulsive and, of course, Tchaikovsky through and through. Thursday’s string of excerpts, in essence a bespoke Suite by the BBC SSO under Sir Mark Elder, was an impassioned, warm-hearted finale to a programme whose earlier moments also bore the hallmark of Russian influence.

In Sibelius’ case, the sentiment was ungenerous. Scènes historiques: Suite No 2, which opened the live broadcast concert, is one of those patriotic scores he wrote in response to Russia’s subjugation of his native Finland, yet for all its grumbling turbulence - that raw Sibelian density and those gnarling harmonic juxtapositions - there is infinite beauty, which this performance strikingly showcased. Through the hurtling exuberance of The Chase, the dreamy Love Song and tip-toeing dance that opens At The Drawbridge, Elder’s calmly probing authority drew liquid gold from the SSO.

Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2 isn’t his most popular, and its obsessive grotesquerie certainly didn’t go down well at the 1913 St Petersburg premiere. To make it work you need a pianist as quirky as the work itself, which 24-year-old Israeli-born Tom Borrow provided. Where the music bears a certain detachment - those aching Prokofiev melodies, stubborn mechanical rhythms and generally acidic countenance - he, too, tackled it visibly and musically with a love-hate belligerence. It seemed just right for a work that aims to provoke rather than seduce.

In its wake, Tchaikovsky provided an exorbitant panacea. Elder’s approach was calm but insightful, focusing on inner warmth as well as perceptive characterisation. He captured the arresting bombast of the Introduction, but the subtleties beyond that (notable solos on violin, flute and cello) harnessed the full spirit of ripe Russian Romanticism.