The Iceland Symphony Orchestra

The Usher Hall

The Usher Hall which, in my view, is the best classical concert hall in Britain, never mind Scotland, has an adventurous international concert programme on Sunday afternoons. They bring some of the best orchestras in the world to Scotland, with some very good conductors. Today’s concert was a  good example, with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Iceland is a small cold country in the middle of the North Atlantic with a tiny population of 360,000 who mainly live in the capital Reykjavik. Yet it has one of the highest living standards in the world, and is ranked as one of the happiest populations in the world by the UN. They also believe in investing in culture, and in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra they have a high-quality orchestra based in one of the finest concert halls in the world, the Harpa Hall. Alex Ross, the doyen of US music critics, said ‘they were sensational with one of the finest Sibelius performances I have encountered’ (New York Times). They also have a tradition of employing a fine series of international conductors as well training good Icelandic conductors. Today we are fortunate to have their current chief conductor, Yan Pascal Tortelier, who is retiring from that role this season. Readers may recall the name through his famous father, the great cellist Paul Tortelier (who I remember 50 years ago playing the Elgar concerto in Thaxted Church), but Yan Pascal Tortelier is now 72 and has become one of the finest conductors of his generation, well known in Britain as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra between 1992 and 2003 and through his annual appearances at the Proms. He also has a mischievous sense of humour; before he conducted one of the parts of this programme, an imposing attendant, a tall bearded Icelander, walked majestically across the stage to theatrically place the music on the conductor’s podium, winning a ripple of applause, before Tortelier walked over to the podium, picked up the music, folded it theatrically and began to walk off the platform, before stopping to take his applause!

The programme for the afternoon was interesting, with a French influence in Bizet and Ravel maybe reflecting Tortelier's preferences, and a second half Scandinavian with Icelandic composer Thorvaldsdottir and Sibelius. Opening the programme was Bizet's music for a French play L'Arlesienne; it was pleasant enough, with colourful music and ringing bells to represent local peasantry in Provence; however having recently heard the SNO play Bizet's Carmen Suite (see earlier review), I have to say it's a much inferior work. What was interesting was watching Tortelier conducting without a score. He was totally in charge of the big 70 plus orchestra, bringing in the musicians with precision but also colour, and even at the age of 72 making little jumps on the podium. We then had Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, written by Ravel for German pianist Paul Wittgenstein (older brother of the famous philosopher), who lost an arm in the First World War. It was superbly played by the young South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son, who after being a child prodigy came to public prominence in 2004 aged 17 as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. Coming on to the stage in a sparkly blue dress she was a splash of colour against the black clad orchestra. She was also a splash of musical colour in her interpretation of the Ravel. The sound she produced from one hand was extraordinary and if you closed your eyes you would think that this was a two-handed piano work, and indeed Ravel had trouble with pianists wanting to arrange it for two hands. It was a triumph and warmly received by the decent sized Usher Hall audience, and she rewarded us with a (two-handed) encore, a Mussorgsky waltz. It was a delightful performance.

After the interval we heard an interesting modern work, Aeriality for Orchestra, written in 2011 by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. This has become one of the most popular modern works, with over 40 performances since 2011. It is described as an ecosystem of sounds, often inspired by nature and its many qualities such as proportion and flow. Aereality certainly isn't atonal or plinky plonky (a friend’s description of modern music without melody!), but according to the composer ‘Aeriality refers to the state of gliding through the air with nothing or little to hold on to - as if flying’. It sounded interesting, with great playing from the percussionists and the flute players and it is certainly worth hearing again.The concert concluded with Sibelius's first symphony, premiered in 1899, which has become a firm favourite in concert programmes ever since. From the first notes of the wonderful opening movement two things were clear: first, the orchestra were very at home with Sibelius, as Alex Ross wrote earlier, and second Yan Pascal Tortelier was totally in charge. No score in front of him, he directed every instrument totally on time and even at 72 was regularly leaping from the podium. It was a superb performance of a great work. After our warm response we were rewarded by more of Yan Pascal's humour. Introducing his encore he explained that this was the last concert of their UK tour. ‘Are you still part of ii?’, he joked and then gave us two very English works just to remind us we were: Walton's music for Henry V and Elgar's The Wand of Youth. His humour and the encores were well received, but in answer to his question the audience might reflect that if a small country like Iceland, one twentieth the size of Scotland, can produce an orchestra as good as the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, then an independent Scotland might be able to sustain a culture at least as good!