VoxCarnyx

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

For artists who lead a solitary existence much of the time, composers can still make the news – and the RSNO had three of those in this programme. Stravinsky’s Petrushka came between the success of the Firebird and the controversy of the Rite, Errollyn Wallen found herself in the centre of the perennial Last Night hoo-hah when she was commissioned to arrange Jerusalem for the 2020 BBC Proms, and Esa-Pekka Salonen has just made the front pages by resigning from the musical directorship of the San Francisco Symphony after a row with the board over policy and budgets.

Perhaps we may now hear more of Salonen the composer, and this concert’s conductor, Joanna Carneiro, made an eloquent case for that with her vigorous direction of his Nyx, named for a mysterious dark figure in Greek mythology, and receiving its Scottish premiere. Opening with a horn quintet fanfare and featuring two extended clarinet solos, its other singular orchestral details included quartets of flutes and piccolos, some downright sleazy string writing, and prominent roles for pianist  and harp just as in the Stravinsky.

RSNO harpist Pippa Tunnell was also to the fore in the opening of Wallen’s violin concerto, rumbling strings preceding her partnership with tubular bells as soloist Philippe Quint made his first entrance with fluttering harmonics.

This was the UK premiere of a work co-commissioned by the RSNO and specifically composed for Quint, with details of his own musical life woven into it. He certainly had plenty virtuosic music to play, with few bars of respite, but it was often overshadowed by the quality of the orchestral writing in the earlier sections. Written in three distinct movements, it was the last of these that seemed the most satisfying, the soloist’s pizzicato line distinguishing him from the strings, and the brass and timpani setting up a grand chorale and a concluding sprightly dance.

If Petrushka is sometimes overshadowed by the other ballet music of Stravinsky’s early career, Carneiro and the RSNO brought their A-game to make the case for it. The conductor took a storybook approach, bringing in the soloists, of whom first flute Katherine Bryan was among the most prominent, as if ushering the characters to the front of the stage. The musicians responded in kind, relishing their moments in the spotlight, whether recurring or in crucial cameos from contrabassoon and cor anglais.

Keith Bruce