RSAMD Symphony Orchestra The Herald 4* Review

RSAMD Symphony Orchestra, RSAMD Concert Hall, Glasgow

Iona Bain

Published on 8 Nov 2009

While the RSAMD scheduled this concertfor Bonfire Night, Bryan Allen, head of performance, made a virtue of the date, promising in the programme a suitably explosive concert.

They made good on that promise, attacking two Shostakovich works with relish in the first half. The Festive Overture, conducted by Bede Williams, provided a confident start, highlighting the outstanding brass section, half of whom were on the stage with the other half in the rear gallery, giving the overture some terrific surround sound. The Concerto for Trumpet, Piano and Strings was more intricate, but conductor Nicholas Cleobury kept the strings and soloists on track for a tight performance. Pianist Jessica Leong Wai Yan was commanding, with a percussive quality well-suited to Shostakovich, while Tom Poulson, clearly a star trumpeter, pulled off the piece’s sly parody in his spotlight moments.

The second half was a radical study in contrast. There was The Confession Of Isobel Gowdie, James MacMillan’s scabrous yet tender claim to fame, followed by Mavis In Las Vegas, Peter Maxwell Davies’s kitschy memento of Sin City. The Confession was performed with intensity and commitment; the brass, again, did a furiously good job, matched by the strings’ impassioned Celtic drones. Mavis, meanwhile, rounded it all off in a zesty, big-band performance, staying on the right side of affectionate tribute and bringing home those promised pyrotechnics