Showing @ City Halls, Glasgow, Fri 8 Apr
A programme of Haydn and Mozart. Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill, doesn’t it? However, this Scottish Chamber Orchestra concert with the astonishing American conductor and pianist Robert Levin was anything but. The performance of Haydn’s Symphony No 97 was curtailed after the third movement, with the final Presto assai moved to the end of the evening. It was in the symphony that Levin’s outlandish conducting style – jerky, gawky, reminiscent of armchair conductors in front of the CD player – was to the fore, yet the results he gained were the polar opposite – graceful, supple, smiling, with a marvellously rustic dance in the Trio section of the third movement.
But it was in the two contrasting Mozart piano concertos placed in the middle of the symphony that Levin came into his own. Directing from the keyboard, almost surrounded by the string section, with the de-lidded piano pointing out towards the audience and his back to the woodwind, Levin gave a superbly integrated performance of No 24. At times he disappeared into the orchestral texture, giving it depth and colour, before reasserting himself in the cadenzas and lovely duets with the woodwind, particularly the flute. No 17 showed Levin at his impish best, laughing and cajoling the players in an exuberant performance which communicated the sheer joy of music-making to an appreciative audience. Caveats? Splitting the symphony, apparently a common practice in the 18th century, added little, and probably detracted more, in a 21st century context. And could two piano concertos in one evening be too much of a good thing?
Run ended: for further listings see Scottish Chamber Orchestra