Final RSNO Dundee concert provides a fitting finale

The final concert of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s (RSNO) Dundee season was conducted by its music director, Peter Oundjian.

It featured two popular pieces from the 19th Century – Beethoven’s first piano concerto and Brahms’ fourth symphony.

It is not unusual to hear a recent composition in these concerts.

Sally Beamish’s third piano concerto was premiered in January, and was now receiving its first UK performance.

A very unusual feature of this piece is that it was tied so closely to the Beethoven, one of a series of five concertos pianist Jonathan Biss has commissioned as companion works for the set of five classic concertos. Whether it will establish a separate identity remains to be seen.

To play the two concertos back to back must be quite a challenge for any pianist.

At a first encounter, the thematic links to the Beethoven are not completely clear, of course, and several performances will be required for that element to become familiar.

The second aspect of the work is perhaps more accessible.

The subtitle, City Stanzas, contrasts this with the essentially land or seascape driven elements of the first two. It is clearly composed in an age of anxiety, not just because of the frenetic business of modern city life, but also its definite sense of occasional repose, with loneliness featuring in the tranquil, but still uneasy slow movement.

If this is a work that will repay repeated listening, we were on far more familiar territory with the Beethoven concerto.

The famously elegant clarity of Biss’s playing emphasised the classical links to Mozart and Haydn.

It also came like a splash of cold, fresh water after the intensity of the Beamish work, showing that they can make a surprisingly effective partnership.

Brahms’ symphonies are usually talked of as successors to Beethoven, but this excellent performance brought out the central romanticism of the work, with the horns and trombones linking it to Bruckner.

The third scherzo movement was taken at an unusually rapid pace, very exciting, leading to the climactic triumph of the finale.