This Firebird burns bright
SCO, Maxim Emelyanychev and Alina Ibragimova
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
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It felt a bit of a head-scratcher. Okay, The Firebird might not exactly be Mahler’s Eighth, but when he wrote it Stravinsky was certainly intending to show off his creative prowess across a hefty orchestra. Yet on this occasion, its sonic opulence and power was going to be conveyed by... the pint-sized forces of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra?
It was an audacious, eyebrow-raisingwayforeffervescentconductormaximemelyanychev to end the SCO’S current season. And this Firebird was a revelation. Maybe not as rich and lush as when played by a bigger band, but what it lacked in sheen and weight, it more than made up for with
precision, clarity and light. It feltlikeemelyanychevandthe SCO players were stripping layers of veneer off the music to reveal its bright, chiselled essence.
Emelyanychev was surprisingly four-square in the ballet’s atmospheric opening, but soon relaxed into a flowing,fluidaccount,andonethat shone a spotlight on details thatoftengounremarked.his “Infernal Dance” made more thanafewlistenersintheusher Hall jump in their seats, but it snarled with a brassy sense of danger and threat, and the pealing bells of his sonorous conclusion were nimble and bright, heralding a new dawn. Indeed, it was a performance that reminded you just what a light-infused, glittering creation The Firebird actually is.
Just as bright and brilliant was Alina Ibragimova’s breathtakingly athletic account of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. Ibragimova was a commanding but unassuming presence, with a remarkable agility and flexibility of sound that was more than a match for Prokofiev’s restless flickering between styles, from the lyrical to the grotesque. Emelyanychev opened with a craggy, deeply felt and joyfully noisy performanceofbeethoven’sleonore Overture No. 3, which set the concert’s tone of high drama right from its brusque opening gesture.