RSNO: Kim Plays Brahms Piano Concerto No1
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - 27/11/21
Over 30 years ago, sitting in the auditorium of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, in complete darkness as the orchestra pit designed by Wagner was hidden from view, the ethereal strains of the prelude to ‘Lohengrin’ crept into my consciousness. It was one of the most magical moments of my life, and tonight, on my computer screen, live from the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, I heard that wonderful string opening again, as the RSNO, conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer, began the latest concert in their autumn season.
I should have been at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh the previous night for the same concert, but the Met Office Red Warning not to travel stopped me from going out. The concert had gone ahead, but after my recent back injury discretion was the better part of valour. Fortunately, the RSNO are streaming their concerts from Glasgow, so I was able to enjoy this excellent concert after all.
The dreaded Covid had already deprived the orchestra of their original conductor, and Mr Stockhammer, an American based in Germany, had heroically stepped in to take over the concert. From his biography, it seems that he has made a career conducting mainly contemporary music, and I was slightly concerned that a programme of largely Romantic music might have been a challenge. However, from the very first notes of Wagner’s Overture to ‘Lohengrin’ (1850), he was very much in control, with his clear beat and sweeping gestures, and I could relax.
Wagner’s early opera was the first to announce him as a major composer, and the RSNO played the overture wonderfully. This is no rum-tee-tum curtain raiser to quieten a noisy audience before the action begins but is rather an evocation of the magic and power of the Holy Grail, whose redemptive qualities pervade the entire opera. The first audience in 1850 could hardly have been expecting this other-worldly music, and it proved a perfect opening to this concert. We had been asked not to applaud the Wagner, as it metamorphosed into the second piece in the programme, Metacosmos, a meditative work, constructed around the natural balance between beauty and chaos, by the Icelandic composer, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, premiered in New York in 2018. The transition was surprisingly effective, and we were able to enjoy the unusual sound world of this London-based composer. Mr Stockhammer was a very worthy advocate of this music, and the dense textures and complex harmonies of ‘Metacosmos’ were revealed to us in a clear and concise performance. I must admit to bafflement at the composer’s notes in the programme, but the work, like the Wagner, showed off particularly the strings of the RSNO, who make a really beautiful sound.
Jean Sibelius wrote the tone poem ‘Tapiola’ at the height of his fame in 1926, premiered by the New York Philharmonic, but it proved to be his last work. He lived for another 30 years, but never wrote any more music. Unlike Rossini, who hardly wrote any music in the 40 years before his death but became well-known as a gourmand and general bon viveur, Sibelius appears to have withdrawn into himself, in a self-critical cloud of anxiety and depression.
‘Tapiola’ means “in the realm of Tapio, the forest spirit”, and the music evokes the dense, silent forests of Finland, where primeval forces are at work. Most of the themes stem from an initial string figure, as Sibelius weaves a musical web of atmospheric complexity and tonal breadth. Mr Stockhammer conjured lovely sounds out of the RSNO, the woodwind in particular, with telling contributions from all the principals. As I remarked last week, the orchestra is playing marvellously well at the moment, and one feels that the players themselves are loving the chance to express themselves fully. Here, the experience of the lockdown digital series earlier this year has, I am sure, given them the confidence to play as soloists within an orchestral whole. We have been privileged to watch them at close quarters on camera, in a way unprecedented in my experience, and they appear to have thrived on that.
After the interval, we were treated to a brilliant performance of Brahms’ youthful First Piano Concerto, written in 1859, when the composer was only 26. The soloist was the fabulous Korean, Sunwook Kim, who won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006 at the age of 18, and who has carved out a spectacular career since then. Ably accompanied by the RSNO and Jonathan Stockhammer, Mr Kim gave us a flawless account of one of the greatest concertos for piano ever written, a piece that started out as a sonata for two pianos, changed into a symphony and finally metamorphosed into a piano concerto like no other, almost symphonic in construction and monumental in scope. From the early rumblings on timpani, through almost manic trills and spectacular climaxes, the long first movement takes the audience on a journey of discovery, probably a reaction to the recent madness and death of Robert Schumann, who had taken a keen interest in the young Brahms. Since he wrote his symphonies later in life, and became famous in opposition to Wagner and Liszt, we tend to think of Brahms as an older man, in photographs looking formidable, like an Old Testament prophet. The young composer of the piano concerto was vibrant and romantic, and all that romantic temperament poured out in this work. Sunwook Kim is only a few years older than Brahms was when he composed the concerto, and he too threw himself into a performance which was fascinating to watch up close on the screen.
The second movement, by contrast, is a serene meditation. Brahms wrote above the first theme of the slow movement, “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini”, the words of the Latin Mass set so memorably by Beethoven in his Missa Solemnis for solo violin, orchestra and vocal quartet. Something of that atmosphere was created by Brahms in this movement, beautifully played by Mr Kim and the RSNO.
The hushed ending of the slow movement was dying away as Mr Kim launched into a spirited rendition of the opening theme of the final movement, a Rondo, and the concert moved to a triumphant end as the minor key struggles of the past gave way to a mighty D Major conclusion.
This was a great performance by a pianist at the top of his game, fully committed, and wonderfully partnered by Jonathan Stockhammer, who last weekend had no idea he would be in Scotland conducting two concerts with the RSNO. I can pay no higher complement than to say that not for a minute did we feel any sense of a substitute presence, and I hope we can see this fine conductor again soon.
