Usher Hall, 30/10/2026
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bassem Akiki (conductor), Philippe Quint (violin)
A surprisingly good audience turned up at the Usher Hall on Friday evening, eschewing the delights of Halloween and The Traitors Finale for a potentially difficult concert of Copeland, Auerbach and Shostakovich. That it proved to be so good and so interesting was a special bonus! The orchestra was augmented by several members of the Sinfonia Smith Square in London, a foundation created to give early career musicians a chance to play in a top class symphony orchestra. No diminution in quality of playing was perceived! The Lebanese-Polish conductor, Bassem Akiki, was making his RSNO debut, and his brilliantly expressive conducting was very well-received in the hall, especially when he came on for the Shostakovich in a red suit – très chic!The concert started with a flourish – Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’, written as a morale booster for the United States after its entry into WWII after Pearl Harbor. Scored for 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum and tam-tam, it was fantastic to hear live, with the players lined up at the foot of the choir stalls. Listening to recordings, one is largely unaware of the percussion, and in the Usher Hall, the effect of the ensemble was awe-inspiring. Most of the brass left until the interval, but the percussion was increased somewhat for Lera Auerbach’s Violin Concerto No 1, played by the brilliant American violinist, Philippe Quint. Born in Leningrad, Mr Quint moved to New York in 1991, and is now a US citizen. He is particularly known for championing contemporary music, and this concerto was written for him by Lera Auerbach, who also was born in Russia and now lives in the United States.The concerto, in four movements, is a successful combination of modern orchestration and harmonic orthodoxy, with the solo violin a constant voice in the ever changing musical development. I found it fascinating, and very listenable to, especially the andante religioso 3rd movement, and it was clear that it was a hit with the audience. Ms Auerbach even gives the soloist an extended cadenza in the last movement, in which Mr Quint displayed a fabulous technique as well as a deep understanding of the score. Playing on a 1708 Stradivari violin, his beautiful tone filled the Usher Hall with ease, and one could see and feel the rapport with Mr Akiki and the RSNO. The orchestra has recorded the concerto with Philippe Quint on Presto Music. After the interval, the whole of the RSNO returned, with added percussion, and Mr Akiki’s red suit, for Dmitri Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, The Leningrad, written and performed during the ghastly siege of that city by the Nazis during WWII. It was relayed throughout the city, and to the encircling German army, as a great gesture of defiance in the face of terrible deprivation and daily terror. The siege lasted 872 days from 1941-1944, causing an estimated 1,500,000 deaths, and the symphony was performed first on 9th August 1942. My mentor and friend 40 years ago, Galina Vishnevskaya, one of Russia’s greatest ever sopranos, lived through the siege, and her marvellous autobiography, ‘Galina’, lays bare the horror of the time. Shostakovich had been working as an auxiliary fireman in Leningrad, but agreed to allow himself to be smuggled out to Kuybyshev, far to the east (not as the programme note stated, in South-west Russia – i.e. in the direct line of the German advance!), in order to compose this great work.The symphony pits the common Soviet people (largely represented by strings) against oppressive regimes of all kinds, in this case, the Nazis (brass and percussion). Over a period of just over an hour, this deadly battle is fought out in the orchestra, until all its forces join in a victorious and sublime finale, bringing the audience to its feet, and earning ovations firstly for the magnificent Bassem Akiki, and then for the orchestra, with notable acclaim for Katherine Bryan (flute), who was fantastic throughout, Adrian Wilson (oboe), David Hubbard (bassoon), Timothy Orpen (clarinet), and not forgetting guest principal timpanist, Stefan Beckett. The entire percussion section was absolutely brilliant, and I must give a special mention to the first snare drummer, who played without a break for at least 15 minutes in the first movement, as a fearful march enveloped the entire orchestra.The experience of hearing the symphony in the concert hall was visceral, and one of my best hours in a concert hall for a long time. I will be giving a talk in Oxford in December about my experiences singing the role of Death in Ullmann’s opera, ‘Der Kaiser von Atlantis’ in Sarajevo early in 1996, just after the long and terrible siege of that lovely town, and my thoughts went back to the memories of those tired, haggard, exhausted people coming to our show and allowing art and music to assuage their pain. The experience of the Leningrad population in hearing Shostakovich’s great symphony must have been similar, and one’s thoughts go out now to all those in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan who suffer in the same way.Bassem Akiki was the magician here who held everything together in this massive undertaking, and his highly expressive conducting extracted wonderful playing from the RSNO. A brilliant concert!
