Music

SCO/Emelyanychev

City Halls, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

four stars

THERE is no hanging about with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s ebullient young Russian Maxim Emelyanychev. The orchestra’s chief executive Gavin Reid had not really finished his words of welcome to the SCO’s Glasgow audience, after more than a year and half of separation, when the conductor bounded onstage with soloist Lukas Geniusas and launched the orchestra into Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5.

The work is known, somewhat mysteriously, as the “Emperor” concerto, but there was nothing imperious about Emelyanychev. Rather it is just his irrepressible approach to getting on with the job, an infectious enthusiasm that won many admirers when he and the orchestra tore through Mozart’s late symphonies at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall during the summer.

A fine keyboard player himself, his introduction of the Russian-Lithuanian Geniusas to Scottish audiences marks the pianist as one to watch. The two men certainly shared an approach to the work – big, bold and brash at times, but also lyrical rather than especially speedy. The soloist was fast-fingered, but always unhurried, and with a deal of character in the Adagio slow movement and the skipping figures of the finale.

Emelyanychev brought out revealing details in the phrasing of the strings, bolstered to 30 players, with five cellos and three basses high at the back of the platform, whose contribution was distinctly audible. Perhaps the transition into the third movement was a little mannered in the conductor’s baton-less hands, but there were always details of the score, like the soloist’s dialogue with timpanist Louise Goodwin near the end, that rewarded close listening.

It is also debatable just how “Scottish” is Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, finally completed years after the composer’s inspirational tour of the country. On Friday, however, the blustery weather effects in the opening movement seemed only too apt.

The strings, led by Maria Wloszczowska, were superb there, and Emelyanychev also had them play very quietly indeed at points. It was that dynamic range that distinguished this “Scottish”, alongside the superb solo clarinet of the ever-dependable Maximiliano Martin.