The scene was set in the talk beforehand. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Principal Trombone player who is in his late twenties, Dávur Juul Magnussen, gave his maiden speech and how absorbing and enthralling a pre-concert talk it was.
He is Danish, from the Faroe Islands which are northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway. He gave us a real sense of what it is to be an important part of an orchestra and how for two days beforehand they had all worked hard with their conductor interpreting the three works they were about to play for us. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he drew many a smile from his audience.
Kaija Saariaho was born in Finland and studied computer-assisted and modernist music in Paris. Her Orion is the third of this RSNO Season’s works that have been written in the past ten years. As the conductor, Thomas Søndergård from Denmark, explained its first and third movements were to take us off into space with only the middle movement allowing for a little calm. It was intriguing to watch how the instruments were making the music.
Dejan Lazić, the pianist for the night, is from a musical family in Zagreb and grew up in Salzburg. Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody was a huge success when first performed by the composer in 1934 because of its enticing melody. Although written in three main sections there are no gaps and we watched the orchestra accompany a very talented pianist whilst we were soaking up the theme. The audience was delighted.
After the interval came another Scandinavian work, Nielsen’s Symphony No 4, The Inextinguishable, probably his best known. Written at a time of marriage failure, a job given up and the occupation of his homeland Denmark the title relates to the importance of music and the elemental will to live. The Symphony is famous for the battle in its Finale by two sets of tympani. We saw their drums competing, Martin Gibson the Principal, at one side with his and Dominic Hackett with his at the other.
Dávur Juul Magnussen had explained that Scandinavians don’t see their music anything like as cold and severe as we do. This concert put that right, it wasn’t cold or severe. Far from it.
Event: Friday 5 November 2010 7.30 pm. Pre-concert talk was at 6.45pm.