RSNO, Schnittke and Shostakovich
Usher Hall, 2/10/2026
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Patrick Hahn (conductor), Lawrence Power (Viola)
“What a great piece – well constructed, concise, ironic in places, nicely satirical!” Thus was I greeted at the interval of this RSNO concert by a good friend, whose ideas about music I, to a large extent, respect. Indeed, the conclusion to Alfred Schnittke’s Viola Concerto was warmly received by the decent if not enormous audience at the Usher Hall. Sadly, this was not my reaction to the concerto, but I temper my remarks with the above duly stated.
This was my second piece of Schnittke this year, after an SCO Thursday afternoon concert in January, but sadly my opinion of this Soviet composer has remained steadfastly negative.
Before I tell you why, we need to go back to the beginning of the concert, when the RSNO and its Principal Guest Conductor, Patrick Hahn, gave us an odd appetiser of Leopold Stokowski’s orchestration of Bach’s solo work for voice and bass continuo, ‘Komm, Süsser Tod’ (Come, sweet death). One of Bach’s 69 Sacred Songs and Arias, it expresses the singer’s desire for death and Heaven, a longing for relief from life (“I am weary of the world, Come close my eyes, Come Blessed rest”) and the prospect of an eternity in Heaven.
Stokowski (who famously conducted the orchestra in Disney’s ‘Fantasia’) was a tireless arranger and self-promoter, and not unskilled. This piece, although far from Bach’s sparse beauty, was an easy opener and was played with luscious tone by the RSNO. We know that Patrick Hahn likes to compile interesting programmes, but I couldn’t really see the point in opening with this four minute miniature, especially since it was followed by full-on Schnittke, whose music could not be described as luscious.
We were lucky in many ways to have the internationally renowned violist, Lawrence Power, as soloist in this viola concerto, and his playing was nothing short of miraculous. British born, and playing a 1610 Brensi viola from Bologna, he generates power and beauty from his instrument, and clearly is a master of his craft.
Apparently, Schnittke (1934-1998) had a lifelong ambition to “unify serious music with light music”, using an idiom which he called ‘Polystylism’. In this concerto, in three movements, he mixes all sorts of styles in short phrases, which never get anywhere, but pile on a mixture of angst and release in an atonal broth which became for me ever more inedible. Through all of this, Lawrence Power was fully involved, as was Patrick Hahn and the orchestra. As the programme note told us, ‘finally, the concerto decides to go nowhere at all, but to ebb away in an endless chord, with odd pulses, that you feel could go on for ever.’ I think that was meant to be a positive statement, but it fitted with my impressions of a piece I could have done without. Lawrence Power teamed up with Principal Cello, Pei-Jee Ng, for a lovely Baroque-influenced encore.
After the interval, Patrick Hahn and the RSNO treated us to a stunning Symphony No 5 by Dmitrti Shostakovich, dating from 1937, when the composer was under threat by Stalin and his cronies after the disastrous premiere of his opera, ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District’ in 1934. Early in my career, I sang in a concert performance of the original score from 1934 with Galina Vishnevskaya as the frightful protagonist, conducted by Rostropovich, and, without in any way siding with Stalin the monster, it was a visceral experience, and must have appeared shocking in every possible way on first hearing in the 1930s. This is to temper the general feeling nowadays that Shostakovich wrote the 5th Symphony in some way to secretly show his contempt for Stalin, and the wonderful music he wrote was somehow written just to prove he could, and that it all rang hollow. I have also sung in his 1930 opera, ‘The Nose’, based on Gogol’s short story, which is uncompromisingly modernist and atonal, a crazy romp about a man who wakes up to find his nose is missing! One could see how the composer might have thought that perhaps a certain modification of his style could keep him onside with the powers that be.
Anyway, whatever the motivation for writing the 5th Symphony, there can be no doubt that it is one of the 20th century’s greatest symphonies, a four movement composition which develops many themes and ideas in a concentrated way over about 45 minutes. The first movement is alternatively lyrical and martial, with Mahlerian touches, within a profoundly Russian ambience. The second movement, Allegretto, has a scherzo-like feel but without the humour, with numerous instrumental solos, and hardly prepares us for the haunting slow movement which follows. The brass remain silent as the mood of resigned melancholy featuring solos from flute and oboe, drifts to an end with the sound of the otherworldly celeste.
The great D Minor finale takes us on a journey both of discovery and memory, as it winds through hope, despair and finally triumph, as D Major rings out to send us home on a high. Whatever we make of the thought behind the symphony, there is no doubt about its greatness, and Patrick Hahn’s reading was superb. Cajoling, dynamic, sensuous, persuasive, this was great music making with an orchestra at the height of its power. It was wonderful to see Maya Iwabuchi back as leader, and her playing of various solos was exquisite. Great contributions from all the principals made this a really fantastic performance - kudos to Pippa Tunnell (harp), Simon Lowdon (xylophone), Katherine Bryan (flute) and Amadea Dazeley-Gaist (horn).
As a postscript, having had the auditorium lights turned up the night before for the SCO St Matthew Passion, I was sorry to be plunged again into relative darkness for the RSNO concert. Even a little more light to be able to consult the programme would be wonderful.
