An Evening with Nicola Benedetti
Usher Hall, 21/10/2025
Nicola Benedetti, violin, Yume Fujise, violin, Plinio Fernandes, guitar, Samuele Telari, accordion, Maxim Calver, cello, Finn Moore, piper.
Nicola Benedetti is a national treasure, Scotland’s best known and some would say finest musician and as she reminded us at the Usher Hall on Tuesday it’s 22 years since she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition right here in the Usher Hall. Since then she has forged an international career but also given back to young musicians in Scotland with her Benedetti Foundation. She has also for the last 3 years been the first woman and the first Scottish director of the Edinburgh Festival and is doing a great job.
So I’m a big fan of Nicola’s and jumped at the chance of reviewing her when I heard she was planning a new concert tour, her first for 10 years. Of course I didn’t look at the programme until much nearer the date of the concert, so I was somewhat surprised when I saw it was composed of lots of short pieces of classical music, some rather better known than others. These included ‘Sicilienne’, previously believed to be by Maria Theresia von Paradis, now recognised as the (much later) work of Samuel Dushkin, Henry Wieniawski’s ‘Polonaise’, Manuel Ponce’s ‘Estrellita’ and 3 works by Paganini. The first half concluded with Pablo de Sarasate’ s ‘Navarra’. They were all melodic and vividly executed and were warmly received by a very full Usher Hall. It was a somewhat different audience from the normal Friday night RSNO audience, much younger and often whooping or hollering rather than quietly applauding. When Nicola revealed that the whole programme would be available as a CD next month and that this was part of a 12-date international tour I realised that the project was indeed to appeal to a wider, perhaps younger, audience , though in a way that was entirely consistent with Ms Benedetti’s very serious mission to broaden the base of classical music appreciation. On the experience of Tuesday’s concert I think she is likely to succeed but I personally found something lacking. At the interval I asked a member of the audience, a regular reader of the Edinburgh Music Review and a regular at RSNO and SCO concerts, how she found the first half. Whilst she enjoyed the music she found it unsatisfying and would have liked a more substantial work maybe a concerto. Having heard Nicola perform many of the great violin concertos over the years, that was my own feeling. However I accept we were probably in the minority in the audience.
The second half of the concert began with some Scots tunes, including the Skye Boat Song, and some more classical items including Monti’s ‘Czardas’, Bloch’s ‘Prayer’, Debussy’s ‘Beau Soir’, and a very nice ‘Carmen Fantasie’ by Pablo de Sarasate. On stage Nicola was accompanied by a group of very talented musicians: Plinio Fernandes, guitar, Samuele Telari, accordion, and Maxim Calver, cello. There were also significant contributions from two other musicians: the talented Japanese violinist, Yume Fujise, joined Nicola Benedetti for the 2 violin Sarasate piece, ‘Navarra’, and the piper, Finn Moore, who joined the ensemble for the three Scottish pieces in the second half, much to the appreciation of the Edinburgh audience. Ms Benedetti has a very good relationship with her musician colleagues, and the audience loved her performance. I’m sure the tour and the CD will be a great success, but if you are expecting meaty concertos you may be like me slightly dissatisfied. However the best news is that next year Nicola will be playing Mendelssohn with the SCO and Elgar with the RSNO, so we can look forward unreservedly to those.
The CD Violin Cafe (Decca) will be available in November.
