With a trumpeter at either edge of the grand circle and a couple at either edge at the back of the orchestra, Panufnik's Third Symphony got us off to a modern-day revision of some of Poland's ancient religious music. Also called Sinfonia Sacra it remembers the creation of the Polish state by Mieszko's baptism more than a thousand years ago. Written after Panufnik fled communism and his fall from grace, the work was not heard in Poland for its first fifteen years - until the RSNO under Sir Alexander Gibson dared include it in a Warsaw concert in 1978.
Principal Trombone Dávur Juul Magnussen, who had earlier enthusiastically filled us in the Orchestra's busy schedule at home and abroad, came down for a short interview with composer, Matthew Rooke, about the world premiere of Tamboo-Bamboo, Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra. It was commissioned by the RSNO for its Principle Timpani Paul Philbert, and it was Paul Philbert, who had joined the RSNO in 2019, who gave us an inspired first performance. The question we were asked was whether African and Caribbean music can embrance classical music without spoiling its own tradition. In this composition Matthew Rooke did not disappoint.
It was good to have David Niemann back; we had enjoyed his conducting earlier in the year. And so it was, with a smaller number of players for the second half, we heard a first class Eroica Symphony by Beethoven.
Whilst the evening's music was of the high standard we expect of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, there was in my mind a lack of customer care. Many of us are used to climbing to the Upper Gallery foyer for a pre-concert talk on what we are about to hear. Somehow, some of us reached the top to be told we needed to be in the stalls. We had already been waiting, tickets in hand, to be admitted - only to find, once beyond the barrier, we had to wait to be allowed in to the stalls. And whilst it was an interesting about-to-be-launched film on the work of the RSNO with Lisa Rourke we were shown, it had no bearing on the evening's music.
Event: Friday 24th October 2025 at 7.30pm