VoxCarnyx

Perth Concert Hall

Was there a single soul in Saturday’s packed Perth Concert Hall who did not feel an anticipatory sense of goodwill and encouragement towards the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine? Cut down to Classical proportions for this all-Beethoven programme, and fulfilling their only Scottish date in a current UK and Ireland Tour, hopes were high for courageously impassioned music-making symbolic of their home country’s existential fight for survival.

Was that, perhaps, too much to hope for? What transpired was a series of rather routine performances from the orchestra under its chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko, whose own loose-limbed physicality appeared to influence some of the carelessness and insipidness delivered by his players. In too many instances tutti entries were like minor car accidents, solo lines were subsumed where they needed to be heard, and a prevalent tenseness hung in the air. 

Such persistent irritations masked those moments where the orchestra hinted at its true worth. The opening chords of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture were genuinely attention-grabbing, while flickers of intense drama gave periodic colour to conversing themes and their vying sentiments. But projection of the music’s richer depths rarely rose above tepid. An ending more perfunctory than consequential voiced its own judgement.

Proof that an inspirational catalyst was sorely needed revealed itself in the form of Ukrainian pianist Mariia Pukhlianko, whose instant response to the emphatic opening E flat orchestral chord of the ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto was one of unrelenting mission. It was an awakening moment, beyond which the pianist’s electrifying domination, heightened by fiery articulation and unremitting momentum, raised the orchestra’s game. Now there were signs of passion and self-belief, an opening movement seething with blustery rhetoric, the heavenly serenity of a slow movement touched by Pukhlianko’s lyrical sensitivity, segueing to a Finale that breezed to a resolute conclusion.

Yet for all that the spirit of this Beethoven was well-served, vexatious weaknesses prevailed. Why were key woodwind melodies subsumed beneath inessential background textures. Why have the first violins play arpeggiated accent chords rather than more affirmative divisi between desk partners when the former led to such chaotic indecision? Again, Sirenko seemed not to have dealt with important and obvious detail.

Similar issues recurred through the Seventh Symphony. But here at least there seemed to be a more convincing composure and incision (the Allegretto second movement’s graceful unfolding as convincing as the needle-sharp precision of its internal fugato), and a candid playfulness in the Scherzo. The norm is to proceed to the Finale uninterrupted with a swift attacca. Sirenko opted not to, encouraging a ripple of audience applause and a hiatus that halted the directional impetus. When it did get going, though, this spirited symphony rocked its way – despite the brass section’s untamed overindulgence – to ultimate jubilation. Even the players were now smiling.

Ken Walton