SCO, Mark Wigglesworth & Alena Baeva, Edinburgh review: 'an evening of revelations'

With its slightly topsy-turvy, concerto-opener-symphony structure, its eclectic repertoire and its personal connections, this was clearly a concert built around and for a single, crucial musician. But with Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto indisposed, would it even come together under new management?

Okay, the ordering of pieces did feel a little lopsided. But other than that, absolutely. And – alongside the Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians themselves, of course, on fiery, eager form – that was down to two people. Kyrgyzstan-born violinist Alena Baeva made for a formidable soloist in Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous Violin Concerto, sweetly toned in a particularly delicate, heartfelt opening movement, but forceful and energetic in a dashing finale that, because of the sheer ringing clarity of her playing, never felt rushed. She’s clearly an exceptional violin technician: articulation was crisp, vibrato nicely varied, tone rich and rounded, aside from some gloriously whispered, veiled playing in the fragile slow movement. But it was a thoroughly sincere, unmannered performance, one that conveyed Tchaikovsky’s heart-on-sleeve emotion with compelling conviction. Unsurprisingly, it went down a storm.

Baeva received remarkably vivid, perceptive support from the second figure, conductor Mark Wigglesworth, who was nimble and agile amid Tchaikovsky’s tempo changes and alert to Baeva’s own playing decisions, but directed with broad, sweeping gestures and a hint of restrained nobility too.

He was all over the teeming details, too, of the rather magical Pocket Cosmos by Freya Waley-Cohen that opened the concert’s second half, which collided together sometimes Messiaen-like harmonies and otherworldly instrumental combinations in music that truly seemed to summon subtle new colours from the orchestra. It made for captivating listening, leading the ear inside its own workings, and Wigglesworth and the SCO players seemed entirely at one with Waley-Cohen’s fertile musical imagination.

By way of complete contrast, Wigglesworth’s Beethoven Fourth Symphony was rugged but refined, full of driving rhythms and abundant energy. Despite the absence of its original lynchpin, it was nonetheless an evening of revelations.

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