(Preview) RSNO: Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony
Thursday 6 October, 7.30pm: Caird Hall, Dundee
Friday 7 October, 7.30pm: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Saturday 8 October, 7:30pm: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Free pre-concert talks at 6.45pm with organist Michael Bawtree and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.
This week’s RSNO concert contains much to delight. Starting where they left off last week, they will play Stravinsky’s ‘Jeu de Cartes’, followed by the UK Premiere of Poul Ruders’ Harpsichord Concerto. In the second half, we will hear Saint-Saēns’ extraordinary Symphony No 3, the Organ Symphony. Once again, the orchestra’s Music Director, Thomas Søndergård, will conduct, so we are in for an exciting evening!
Actually, the Stravinsky piece is quite different from ‘The Rite of Spring’, which we heard last week, It comes from the composer’s neo-classical period, and was premiered by the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 1937. I have to say that I am not a great fan of neo-classical Stravinsky, but this ballet score sounds a lot of fun, with all sorts of musical jokes and references.
Poul Ruders, a compatriot of the RSNO’s Danish Musical Director, is a composer who writes in a variety of styles and his introduction to this Harpsichord Concerto suggests we are in for a fascinating aural experience. With subtle amplification (you would never hear a harpsichord against a symphony orchestra), Mr Ruders has produced a piece which looks back and forwards at the same time. The Iranian/American harpsichordist, Mahan Esfahani, will bring all his skills to bear on this exciting new piece.
The second half of the concert is devoted to Saint-Saëns’ 3rd Symphony, known as ‘The Organ Symphony’, due to the appearance of a grand pipe organ. Hopefully, the Usher Hall’s instrument will rise to the occasion! My own experience of Saint-Saëns’ music came when I sang in a production of his famous opera ‘Samson and Delilah’, in the Grand Theatre in Geneva a few years ago. This stirring piece alerted me to the merits of a composer who I had underestimated, and you will certainly not be underwhelmed by the 3rd Symphony. Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, it was given its premiere in London in 1886, with the composer conducting.
This promises to be a very interesting concert, and the absence of a particularly famous work should not put you off. One can nowadays guarantee a world class performance by our own RSNO, and it is up to us, the concert-going public of Scotland, to support them.
