RSNO: Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique
Usher Hall, Edinburgh - 21/04/23
Lionel Bringuier, conductor | Randall Goosby, violin
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s 2022-23 season continued on the evening of 21st April in the Usher Hall, with a programme of two popular Tchaikovsky masterworks, preceded by a 1939 concert-opener by politically controversial Norwegian, David Monrad Johansen. The originally-advertised conductor, Tabita Berglund, was indisposed, so the orchestra rehearsed and performed under the baton of Frenchman, Lionel Bringuier. The audience was welcomed and the programme introduced by principal trumpeter, Christopher Hart.
The epithet ‘controversial’ as applied to Johansen is a reference to his support for the Nazi-collaborating puppet government of Vidkun Quisling during the fascist occupation of Norway in the Second World War. After the war, he did jail time with hard labour, but his reputation was eventually rehabilitated. The first major biographer of Grieg, he strove to establish a Norwegian national musical culture. His single-movement piece, ‘Pan’, originally conceived as a movement in a 3-movement symphonic poem or suite based on a Hamsun novel, is evocative of the forces of nature at work despite tension with urban life, in musical language with some influence from Sibelius and, to a lesser extent, Ravel, yet an individual voice in evidence. In structure, it had elements of sonata form, while the dynamics followed an archlike profile. Some fine lyrical solos were delivered, most notably by principal flautist Katherine Bryan and guest principal cellist Karen Stephenson. I found the piece skilfully orchestrated, with fine writing for all sections of the orchestra, and a very satisfying listen. It also felt equally satisfying to perform – maestro Bringuier coaxed the fullest advocacy of the piece from the RSNO; this boded well for the goodies to come.
Next up, charismatic American virtuoso Randall Goosby was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Violin Concerto. The brief sunny orchestral introduction set a perfect tempo, heralding the solo entry, which was characterised from the off by flawless intonation and phrasing, and tone to die for (even in the high harmonics of the cadenza) – everything one might wish for from a performance of a great romantic violin concerto. When the drama or the dialogue demanded it, the tempo relaxed, with orchestra and soloist maximally mutually responsive, and with rubato that was expressive without ever being over-indulgent. The return of the principal theme on flute at the end of the movement was among the sweetest I’ve heard. The same characterful music making continued in the nocturnal lyricism of the Canzonetta, with delicious comments from principal clarinettist Timothy Orpen. The finale fully exploited the gypsy elements with rhythmic and playful dance alternating with soulful episodes of romantic lyricism. The coda was as exciting and thrilling as I’ve heard. Dare I say that the Usher Hall audience were almost Glaswegian in their vociferous appreciation? At any rate, this prompted a superbly jazzy encore: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s ‘Louisiana Blues Strut’. Quite excellent.
The single work after the interval was Tchaikovsky’s final symphony, No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathétique’ (1893). Even for a composer renowned for wearing his heart on his sleeve, it is a work that sets out with almost brutal candour the most vivid portrayal of an inner mental turmoil, anguish and abject despair in the outer movements, finally crushing the glimmer of hope that surfaces in the inner movements. Once seen as Tchaikovsky’s suicide note, modern scholarship acknowledges that the composer found the composition of the work immensely cathartic, as indeed it undeniably is to perform and listen to. It is a great masterpiece and Bringuier and the RSNO set about convincing us anew of this evaluation. The baleful opening on bassoon was answered by the violas with maximum pathos. Nervous energy was in evidence in the main theme of the Allegro non troppo, while an unhurried tempo allowed the violin phrasing to breathe in the tender second subject. The explosive central section let us rage with the composer against the injustice of his misery, while the measured pizzicato tread of the stoic coda led us to reluctant acceptance of fate. The second movement, waltzlike despite its bizarre 5/4 metre, allows us to forget our woes in sociable company at a surreal (and possibly imaginary) ball. The Allegro molto vivace even allows us the buoyancy of mood inherent in a triumphant, gleeful march. The sobs of the finale are thus more poignant by contrast.
This was a spirit-wringing masterful delivery of an emotionally charged work by perhaps the greatest of Russia’s 19th-century geniuses. Thank you, RSNO and Lionel Bringuier.