Farnes performs musical heroics

The real hero of this last concert in the series by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Perth Concert Hall was conductor Richard Farnes.

He had really done his job at rehearsal as the BBC SSO played with refinement, bloom, confidence and richness.George Butterworth’s Rhapsody – A Shropshire Lad came over as an atmospheric work, of much greater emotional power and cogent structure than it is often played.

The very large orchestra played with vivid colour.

Richard Farnes brought out the dynamic range from the quietest Review: Lawrence Power/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Richard Farnes) -- Perth Concert Hall

murmur to the vehemence of the climax.

On only its second outing in Scotland, Lawrence Power was the outstanding soloist in MacMillan’s 2013 Viola Concerto. Expected from this soloist, the BBC SSO, too, played with absolute assurance in this major, 30 minute work.

The viola’s plaintive tone led to faster dance-like music.

At times two violas and two cellos joined the soloist.

After a dissonant brass start to 2., comforting strings backed the viola’s cantabile, MacMillan

occasionally overstepping into mawkishness.

The movement ended with ricochet bowing, harmonics and the soloist ascending ever higher. In a playful final movement running strings meet mocking brass and percussion before a calming shakuhachi-like solo flute.

The work ends with virtuoso viola, a horn chorale then strings brass and tubular bells in an almost filmic ending.

With the help of a sustained note from principal cello Martin Storey, Lawrence Power gave as

encore an impassioned reading of Ravel’s Kaddish, the Jewish Prayer of Mourning over the dead.

Richard Farnes’view of Elgar’s huge and hugely important Symphony No.2 in E Flat inclined towards the darkly melancholic with some daringly slow playing, yet also surges of great energy. Again his virtues of clarity, sensitive phrasing and a huge dynamic range made this a performance where the ever attentive Perth audience was able to clearly hear into the greatest detail.

The‘malign influence’part of the first movement typifies this: buried in the score are the double-basses, pizzicato, an ingredient, but here perfectly audible as unsettling.

The slow movement had luminosity and variety, obeying Elgar’s instruction‘nobilmente’, beautifully integrating the desolate oboe with the strings.

As they had been all evening the brass were firm with great precision in the Scherzo. Outstanding in the Finale were the spiteful, mocking section and the finely maintained long build down from the solo trumpet’s climactic, harrowing note.

IAN STUART-HUNTER