VoxCarnyx

City Halls, Glasgow

It’s a measure of the man that when charismatic Finnish violinist/director Pekka Kuusisto had to pull out of his dual-purpose appearance with the SCO, his replacement was twofold. In came the highly experienced Mark Wigglesworth as conductor, but more especially, the fiery musical persona of violinist Alena Baeva as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. While Wigglesworth took masterful control of an unchanged programme, Baeva threw fascinating, to some extent enigmatic, new light on a concerto many might have considered exhausted of its interpretative potential.

Unusually, it was the starter to the evening, an approach perhaps aligned to the intended player/director role of Kuusisto. A second half that paired the 2022 work, Pocket Cosmos, by British-American composer Freya Waley-Cohen with Beethoven’s Symphony No 4, in the end presented an evenly balanced listening experience.

It also sharpened the impact of Baeva’s riveting performance. It was hugely personal, immediately evident in an opening that seemed precariously slow and considered, yet which quickly revealed its subtle ploy as a teaser to the compelling direction of travel ahead. There was something very operatic, emotionally unpredictable, but uncannily beautiful in her poetic expressiveness, as if the soul of Tatyana, from the composer’s opera Eugene Onegin, was being transfigured in instrumental form.

In so doing Baeva, along with Wigglesworth’s eagle-eyed precision, unearthed endless surprises: a solo line that never ceased to soar above an exquisitely balanced orchestral presence; orchestral details that opened our ears to often conversational secrets that so often become hidden within the general morass; in short, a genuinely reconditioned approach to an age-old potboiler. 

Equally refreshing was Baeva’s rhythmic buoyancy, articulated with electrifying precision and a power of projection that was both exhilarating and demonstrative. The opening movement encompassed moving affection and dazzling virtuosity on its monumental course, save for a momentary wobble near the end. After the soulful Russian-ness of the central Canzonetta, the Cossack grit of the Finale intensified and Beava signed off with the ecstatic flourish of a Whirling Dervish. A virtuosic Bacewicz encore maintained the heat.

Waley-Cohen’s Pocket Cosmos – written originally for Kuusisto and the London Chamber Orchestra, its title extracted from a poem by Rebecca Tamás – struck a perfect tone with which to open the second half. This is music liberated by its detailed originality. Wigglesworth gave it room to breath, the sheer transparency of its shifting textures charming the senses, its purposeful journey shaped with scintillating delicacy and sheen, its musical language – with unrepentant nods to Messiaen and Stravinsky – self-assured but also questioning. 

Where Beethoven’s Fourth is sometimes unfairly considered the runt of his symphonic litter, here was a performance to reaffirm its relevance and distinctiveness. Again, this was down to Wigglesworth’s assertive but non-interventionist lead. An acutely disciplined SCO reacted to his key signals with lightning exactitude, giving unceasing impetus to the dynamic flow, as much in the helter-skelter Scherzo and Finale as in an unlaboured Adagio. When Wigglesworth chose to step back, the orchestral machine remained a cohesive organism, instinctively interpreting his thoughts. 

Kuusisto will also be absent from Sunday afternoon’s Chamber Music recital (9 March) at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, in which he was to perform with members of the SCO. At the time of writing, he is still down to complete his advertised mini-residency directing next week’s SCO New Dimensions programme of Britten, Adès, Andres, Beamish and Haydn.

Ken Walton