Beneditti entrances young and old in SCO finale

The Herald Scotland

18-05-2025

Keith Bruce
four stars
JOHANNES Brahms and child star violinist Joseph Joachim were friends from their teenage years, although well into their maturity when Brahms composed a concerto for him to play. Felix Mendelssohn was a published composer at 13 and conducted the precocious Joachim in London when the violinist was 12. There was plenty in the SCO's season finale programme to inspire the many young people in the audience, attracted by Scotland's classical star, Nicola Benedetti.
The Brahms Violin Concerto has long been a staple of her repertoire, the rhythmic dance of the closing movement perhaps identified with her as much as any piece of music. Partnered with the chamber orchestra and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, the concerto was heard as a beautifully-integrated whole, and her dialogue with guest first oboe Jose Masmano Villar in the slow second movement as much of a highlight.
There is still an arresting ferocity in Benedetti's first entry at the start of the work, and mature precision in her statement of the chords played across three strings now accompanies the expressive intensity that her fans, young and older, love in her playing. Emelyanychev ensured that every dynamic detail of the rich orchestration was heard in immaculate balance with his soloist.
After the interval, the conductor's skills were even more in evidence on Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, an old war horse brought to vibrant new life. Whether or not the opening bars conjure up images of Romantic ruins at the foot of the Royal Mile – and despite the stormy weather depicted in sound being a long way from the current climate – this is music most people already know.
Few, however, will have heard the clarinet's statement of the opening theme so perfectly placed in the mix, or the cellos recapitulation of the melody in the slow movement so richly-toned. Alert young eyes might also have spotted the viola section cope with their leader's broken string with slick professionalism.
The SCO strings added an exquisite encore of the second of Edvard Grieg's Elegiac Melodies, Last Spring. It was a poignant tribute to the orchestra's former principal cello David Watkin, who become a much-loved teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland when illness cut short a stellar playing career, and who died aged 60 last week.