RSNO & Thomas Søndergård, Edinburgh review: 'food for mind and soul'

A solid Romantic programme drew a gratifyingly fullsome crowd for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Usher Hall evening of Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Okay, it felt like something of an all-meat concert that could probably have done with an appetite-whetting opener or a dose of sweetness, but there was no denying it was food for the mind and soul. Music Director Thomas Søndergård seemed entirely in his element, immersed in the sound worlds of both composers, and directing from a position of insight, knowledge and deep love for the music. And the RSNO players were on deeply impressive form, broad and richly balanced in their sound, yet nimble enough to respond to Søndergård’s occasional switchback changes of direction.

He took an expansive view of the opening Brahms Double Concerto, but one that also kept tempos brisk and textures as aerated as the composer allowed. But there was something of a disconnect between the Concerto’s two soloists, both principals at the Berlin Philharmonic. Bruno Delepelaire made his cello shudder and growl in Brahms’s sometimes tortured soliloquies, shaping phrases impeccably but also – crucially – with a real sense of meaning. But while Delepelaire delivered shifting shades of burnished darkness, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley sometimes dazzled with sonic brilliance: his playing was just as eloquent, but it felt like hearing the same tale being recounted in two different languages.

Søndergård drove a powerfully compelling Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony after the interval, opened by a beautifully throaty solo from RSNO principal clarinettist Timothy Orpen. If Søndergård seemed to pass up a few opportunities of dramatic effect in the slow movement, elsewhere he clearly meant every note of his vivid, detailed interpretation, right up to the Symphony’s hard-won and perhaps not entirely sincere triumphant conclusion.