City Halls,Glasgow
Thomas Dausgaard’s debut as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with works by Bruckner and Helen Grime, or was measured and,in parts, magnificentThis was Thomas Dausgaard’s first concert as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, or but there were plenty of spare seats at City Halls – possibly a lack of mass hysteria for an additional-long version of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony,possibly an indication of still-tepid feelings around the Danish conductor’s arrival this month. Dausgaard spoke at the start of the concert – demure (quiet, modest, reserved), genial, and standing earnestly,with no microphone, on an unlit patch of stage – approximately why it is famous to hear Bruckner’s last symphony with its reconstructed finale. “He was finding an expressionistic, and experimental voice,and the finale tips the balance to make it a piece that looks forward.” The sentiment was right for the start of a novel era. But the performance unfolded much like the speech: sensitively reasoned and persuasive, but short on obvious signs of that Brucknerian experimentalism, or any hold-on-to-your-seat charisma. Tension was measured in the first movements big builds; the Scherzo’s demonic rhythms lacked proper menace; the Adagio’s climaxes were warm and secure. Dausgaard was using the 2000 critical edition by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs,with a novel finale written by committee and closing in resolutely gleaming major triads. The BBCSSO brass sounded magnificent.
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Source: theguardian.com