Usher Hall, Edinburgh
This was an big night for Peter Oundjian ? his first with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra since it was announced he will be taking over as music director when St�phane Den�ve leaves in 2012. So far the audience knows little about Oundjian but the bare bones of his biography: he is Canadian but educated in England; he played first violin in the Tokyo String Quartet for 14 years until a muscle condition called focal dystonia forced a career change; his first encouragement to conduct came from Herbert von Karajan.
But if this Usher Hall audience hoped to ascertain his deeper musical colours, he kept them pretty muted on this occasion. He doesn't seem to have a "thing" ? no great passion or prowess for one composer or style ? and this programme couldn't have been more straight-ahead. Even the contemporary opener, Christopher Rouse's Rapture, was a bit of affirmative easy listening, nondescript and instantly forgettable. The next piece was Grieg's A minor Piano Concerto, played four-square and businesslike by Stephen Hough. Brahms's third symphony should have been Oundjian's showcase, but the performance was dry and cautious.
It will take time for Oundjian and the orchestra to get used to each other, and he didn't try anything fancy here. Things were rough around the edges, with scrappy entries and missed nuances. Tempos tended to be very slow, so by the time Brahms's sixth Hungarian Dance came around as an encore, the orchestra's energy had waned.
Oundjian has been music director of the Toronto Symphony for six years and will continue in that role alongside his new job in Scotland. Den�ve, on the other hand, moved full-time to Glasgow in 2005 and has done excellent things during his time with the RSNO. Let's hope this concert doesn't signal a shift down in gear for this orchestra.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/19/rsno-oundjian-review
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