Symphonic: RSNO Viennese Gala

Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, January 6

Now more than 125 years into its existence, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) takes pride in the fact its history is so extensive that the younger Johann Strauss himself might have been aware of it. Strauss died in 1899, while the RSNO – which counted Gustav Holst among its number in its early years – was founded as the Scottish Orchestra in 1891.

A tradition of the RSNO which has endured as long as the orchestra has been in existence is the annual Viennese concert, which has become a staple at New Year, and which takes in large amounts of Strauss’ work, given that it was he who popularised the Viennese Waltz throughout the 19th Century.

The son of the famed composer, also named Johann Strauss, the young Johann was born near Vienna in 1825, and made a career in music despite his father’s wish that he become a banker instead. In fact, his brothers Eduard and Josef became composers as well, and they dominated the Viennese music scene amid the upheaval of Austria in the 19th Century. Specialising in light forms of waltz and polka music, which were rich in a sense of opulent drama, the Strauss family’s music made them popular stars in Austria, Germany and Poland, eventually touring both Russia and the USA.

Although New Year recitals of music have been recorded in Vienna almost as far back as the year of Johann Strauss II’S birth, the contemporary Vienna New Year’s Day Concert – performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and broadcast to tens of millions of viewers in nearly 100 countries in 2017 – take the works of the four most recognised members of the Strauss family as their core.

It’s into this New Year tradition that the RSNO’S Viennese Gala falls, with past editions pairing liberal doses of Strauss’ work with pieces by composers including Tchaikovsky, Puccini and Schnitzler. The Viennese Gala has become a staple of early January for classical concert-goers in Scotland, and while it doesn’t quite measure up to the grandeur of its counterpart in Vienna, its presence is a reassuring one.

Generally, the Gala has in recent years been handled by the RSNO’S assistant conductor, and this year New Zealandborn Holly Mathieson takes the baton, bringing a CV which includes time spent as Leverhulme Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and working with the Auckland Philharmonia, Opera North and Longborough Festival Opera. She will be joined by Lancashire-born soprano singer Soraya Mafi, whose extensive company credits include English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera and alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

www.rsno.org.uk

Clockwise from top: the RSNO; soprano singer Soraya Mafi; and assistant conductor Holly Mathieson.