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Berlioz, Roussel and Brahms: Stephen Osborne (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Stéphane Denève, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 17.10.2008 (SRT) 

Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Roussel: Symphony No. 1, Le poème de la forêt
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2


The RSNO must feel ever more frustrated at its nomadic existence in Edinburgh.  The seemingly endless renovation of the Usher Hall (will it ever be finished?) means that, yet again, they are staging most of this season’s Edinburgh concerts in the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.  Whilst this works well for opera and ballet, its acoustic feels rather dry for a purely orchestral event, even when the orchestra sits surrounded by layers of canvas to aid the sound projection.  Still, they made the best of it and one could barely notice the restricted sound in the fizzing Roman Carnival Overture that opened this concert.  Ever sharp, and full of pizzazz, the music hurtled along in the busier sections after an arrestingly lovely treatment of the love music. Special mention must be made of the RSNO winds here, which shone in the quieter moments.

The novelty in the programme was the Roussel Symphony. Denève and the RSNO have received great critical acclaim promoting Roussel’s music on Naxos, and the composer must be a labour of love for Denève himself.  He introduced the piece as Roussel’s “Four Seasons”, for it traces a notional forest through winter, spring, summer and autumn, before the return of the winter music at the very end, suggesting the never-ceasing cycle of nature.  What is most interesting about this work, however, is that Roussel’s style is caught between the highly structured style of his teacher, d’Indy, and the impressionistic mood of Debussy, so whilst there is a unifying motto that appears in every movement, parts of the first movement and finale, in particular, owe a lot to the sound world of La Mer. It’s a fascinating piece, and it was played with dedication in this performance.  The nature painting comes across with delicacy and colour, from the frigid tremolos of the winter blizzard, through to the warm middle strings of summer, including a lovely cello solo.  The finale is a rhythmic dance of fawns and satyrs, including a delicate harp ostinato over which a languid flute theme could almost remind you of L’après midi d’un faune.  The whole was shaped beautifully by a conductor who clearly loves this work, and Roussel would be grateful for having such a persuasive champion in Denève.  They are recording it next week, so keep an eye out for it: it’s a work that’s well worth getting to know.

After this the Brahms got off to a rougher start.  The great first movement seemed too craggy, lacking in delicacy, and Osborne seemed tense at the keyboard.  He had plenty of showy hand gestures, but there were far too many inaccurate slips, making the first movement sound muddled.  It also took the orchestra a long time to settle into it and the whole movement seemed indistinctly characterised with little detail.  Things improved with the Scherzo which was much more precise, particularly in its largamente central section where, for the first time, pianist and orchestra seemed to “click” with one another.  The Andante was gorgeous: Osborne finally seemed relaxed as he coaxed every ounce of tenderness out of Brahms’s long, drawn–out phrases, and there was a lovely stillness in the strings as he did so, almost like a surrounding halo.  The two principal cellists acquitted themselves very well.  The finale was sparky and bright from the soloist, while the orchestra leaned nicely into the gypsy-influenced second theme.  Better late than never.

A fine evening, but one I’ll mostly remember for introducing a fascinating new work to which I will return. The concert has been recorded by Radio 3 for broadcast at an unspecified date. 

Simon Thompson

Simon Thompson works  as a teacher at an independent school in Edinburgh. Having learnt the piano and trombone, he gave them up when they became too much effort and concentrated on singing instead.  He has sung bass in a variety of choirs. His main area of interest is opera and vocal music, but he also has extensive knowledge of the main staples of the orchestral repertoire, particularly the late Romantics.

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