Although written by the French composer Maurice Ravel during the First World War and with each movement dedicated to somebody who had died, Le Tombeau de Couperin proved nonetheless to be a thoughtful, tuneful and delightful start to the evening’s concert. It was not surprising that the conductor, Stéphane Denève, had the Principal Oboe player, Emmanuel Laville, on his feet at the end for special applause.
We see many men as piano soloists and so it was a particular pleasure to enjoy the highly respected Imogen Cooper playing Mozart.
Mozart himself gave first performances of many of his piano concertos and it was clear that in playing Piano Concerto No 20, Imogen Cooper was making it her own with both skill and romantic dexterity. The orchestra rightly took second place.
The first and third movements were busy, even turbulent, but between them came the simpler Romanze. The programme notes suggested the opening of a child’s music box at its start and this is returned to by the movement’s end. She was given great applause.
After the interval came another of Stéphane Denève’s choice of Ten Out of 10. During this season the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is playing ten pieces written in the first decade of the 21st century. The Orchestra had filled out and, together with the 120 strong RSNO Chorus, performed Magnus Lindberg’s Graffiti.
Magnus Lindberg, born in 1958, wanted the right words to be sung by the chorus in the right place - far more than following a storyline. The text was taken from random scraps of inscriptions found in Pompeii long after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and the translation came with a sexual rudeness warning in the translation into English in our programme.
There was no doubt at all that the Chorus members (women in red and men in black), under Timothy Dean the Chorus Director, were enjoying every moment and the two soloists were superb.
It did not matter to me that even after many years of learning Latin at school very few words were recognisable. It was a rich and enjoyable experience. Somebody sitting near me was overcome with enthusiasm.
Event: Friday 19 November 2010 7.30pm