I try to get to at least one Promenade concert every year, and this year picked a Sunday evening concert with a predominantly East European programme. This was the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. I chose it partly because I thought it was unlikely to pull the crowds, and it was indeed sparsely attended, rather unfairly so. I was in the arena, and it was a relief that there were more opportunities to take a break from standing than last year.
The concert began with the first performance of Nuages by Linda Catlin Smith. The title (which I only learned after I’d heard the piece) didn’t surprise me much, as it drifted gently along for a quarter of an hour or so without really doing anything in particular. Janáček’s short tone-poem The Fiddler’s Child was unknown to me but seemed to be well played.
The first part ended with Szymanowski’s Love Songs of Hafiz, sung by Georgia Jarman with some gusto. If you like the orchestral version of the Seven Early Songs, you’ll probably enjoy these as the sound-world and melodic style are similar.
The second half consisted of Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony. This had a rousing performance – I particularly appreciated the contributions of the timpanist and the brass – but I can see why this one doesn’t get performed so often. Each movement has a folk-tune at its heart, but these melodies just reappear in different orchestrations rather than being developed. I didn’t stay to find out whether there were any encores.
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