The combination of the RSNO and NJ always promises something special.
This year's programme from the Conductor Laureate was the Serenade for Strings by Dvorak followed by the Leningrad Symphony of Shostakovich.
The concert was recorded by the BBC in Edinburgh on Friday. I attended the sold out Glasgow performance last night. Hopefully, the Edinburgh audience was less bronchitic. (Does no-one, particularly women, possess a handkerchief these days.)
If the Dvorak sounded a bit under-rehearsed this was accounted for by minimal rehearsal time due to the week being taken up with recording sessions for Chandos.
The main event though was the Leningrad, a symphony performed and recorded by this team in the 80s.
Since then, the orchestra has performed it in three programmes, plus a Prom, with Alexander Lazarev, it could be said to be in their blood.
It was a typical Järvi performance. The structure and pacing of the work was impeccable and each climax added to the whole picture rather than being an end in itself. The woodwind playing in particular was very fine and afterwards NJ was characteristically generous in praise of his "Scottish" orchestra which was led on this occasion by Clio Gould.
The audience went wild with an enthusiastic ovation.
David Nice has a review of the Edinburgh performance here:http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php...hall&Itemid=27
This year's programme from the Conductor Laureate was the Serenade for Strings by Dvorak followed by the Leningrad Symphony of Shostakovich.
The concert was recorded by the BBC in Edinburgh on Friday. I attended the sold out Glasgow performance last night. Hopefully, the Edinburgh audience was less bronchitic. (Does no-one, particularly women, possess a handkerchief these days.)
If the Dvorak sounded a bit under-rehearsed this was accounted for by minimal rehearsal time due to the week being taken up with recording sessions for Chandos.
The main event though was the Leningrad, a symphony performed and recorded by this team in the 80s.
Since then, the orchestra has performed it in three programmes, plus a Prom, with Alexander Lazarev, it could be said to be in their blood.
It was a typical Järvi performance. The structure and pacing of the work was impeccable and each climax added to the whole picture rather than being an end in itself. The woodwind playing in particular was very fine and afterwards NJ was characteristically generous in praise of his "Scottish" orchestra which was led on this occasion by Clio Gould.
The audience went wild with an enthusiastic ovation.
David Nice has a review of the Edinburgh performance here:http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php...hall&Itemid=27
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