RSNO: West Side Story

Usher Hall, Edinburgh - 09/10/26

Royal Scottish National Orchestra Kellen Gray conductor.

Authoritatively conducted and introduced by associate artist Kellen Gray, this Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) programme – again footnoting the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – offered an interesting cross-section of twentieth-century American orchestral architecture in popular (but far from unsophisticated) idioms. This evening was all about how folk traditions, jazz rhythms, film music and music theatre get recognised and adapted within the symphonic tradition.

The concert opened with Aaron Copland’s 'Appalachian Spring Suite'. Copland’s open harmonies and beautiful but sparse textures – achieved through wide interval spacings and clean woodwind voicings – demand precise intonation and textural transparency. Under Gray’s direction, the RSNO navigated the score’s changing time signatures and poly-harmonic layers with rhythmic clarity. The famous variation section on the Shaker melody ‘Simple Gifts’ avoided over-sentimentalisation, relying instead on clean phrasing from the woodwinds and balanced brass chorales to allow the symmetry of Copland’s writing to speak for itself.

Due to late programming adjustments following an unfortunate injury to pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, film composer John Williams’ 'Three Pieces from Schindler’s List' replaced what would have been the Scottish premiere of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. RSNO Leader Maya Iwabuchi stepped in admirably to take the solo violin role – one originally made famous by Itzhak Perlman.

Williams' score, while written for cinema, functions on fabulously orchestrated thematic economy. Unsurprisingly, it is among his most highly rated works, even among many of those sceptical that film music can ever fully inhabit the concert hall bereft of its visual framing. Iwabuchi’s delivery of the principal theme emphasised vocal warmth in the lower register without relying on wide, distracting vibrato. The middle movement, ‘Jewish Town’ calls for subtle rubato and precise control over its many inflections, which she balanced perfectly against the orchestra’s harmonic accompaniment. While missing the opportunity to hear Price’s work, the substitution well maintained the programme’s focus on narrative, melodic lyricism.

Following the interval, William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 ‘Afro-American' provided a further focal point. Composed in 1930, this integrates traditional blues progressions, folk contours, dance themes and 1920s jazz syncopation into a short, four-movement symphonic framework. In the opening 'Longing', the muted trumpet introduced the twelve-bar blues theme with stylistic fidelity, avoiding classical stiffness while keeping the underlying orchestral pulse secure.

The third movement, 'Animato', demands sharp syncopation and light articulation across the string section, juxtaposing a banjo rhythm against brass accents. The RSNO maintained the suite-like character of the work, emphasising Still’s sophisticated counterpoint rather than reducing the piece to a novelty tone poem.

Still’s music is gaining increasing recognition these days, as programmers look to widen their cultural reference points. That is a good thing, though it is a huge pity that his avant-garde work under the influence of Varese in the 1920s is now entirely absent from his repertoire – a choice he made in the search for recognition, and respect for the Afro-American heritage

The evening concluded with a fine rendition Leonard Bernstein’s rumbustious (but also thoughtful) 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story'. Taken from the 1957 musical, the suite condenses the show’s highlight material into a continuous 23-minute orchestral arc. The RSNO handled the transition from the aggressive, jazz-inflected 'Prologue' and 'Mambo' to the lyrical 'Scherzo' and ‘Somewhere’ with confidence. Bernstein’s score relies heavily on complex percussion writing, tritones, and asymmetric meters. Conductor Kellen Gray kept things tight and bouncy through the chaotic fugal section of 'Cool', ensuring that the exposed woodwind lines remained audible beneath the rhythmic drive of the lower strings.

This enjoyable and well-received concert at the Usher Hall succeeded because it approached a series of popular American scores not as light entertainment, but as serious musical texts deserving of careful attention to details, texture and orchestral balance. The RSNO continues to impress with the scope, variety and confidence of its programming and performance.