Schumann Violin Concerto
City Halls, Glasgow 25/9/25
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor), Daniel Lozakovich (violin)
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 90th anniversary season opened on the night of Thursday 25th September in Glasgow’s City Halls to a very satisfactory attendance. With only one exception in October when I shall be at the Wexford Festival, it is my intention to report on the entire season, including the afternoon concerts. The season’s tagline, “No second takes: experience it live” draws attention to the thrill of live performance, for audience and performers alike, with just a hint of the perils of unpredictability for the latter. I would never suggest that this tempts fate, but it did turn out to be oddly prophetic. The concert was broadcast live on Radio 3 and was introduced for attendees, radio and online listeners alike (and in a departure from the usual) by Glaswegian broadcaster and Director of Music at the Southbank Centre in London, Gillian Moore. The headline work was Schumann’s 1853 Violin Concerto with Swedish virtuoso Daniel Lozakovich as soloist. After the interval, Rachmaninov’s 1936 Third Symphony was the first symphony of the season in which all three by the composer will be performed. The concert opened with the strings of the orchestra, under their Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, performing ‘for Laura, after Bach’, Ryan’s own tribute to Laura Samuel, former leader of the orchestra, who died in November, which he composed earlier this year and which was first performed at this year’s Proms. The orchestra continues to perform with guest leaders, and our leader for the night was Clio Gould, Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who last guested in May for the Tchaikovsky 5 concert.
The first BBCSSO concert after the announcement of Laura’s demise at 48 was on 28th November and featured Ryan’s wonderful interpretation of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony. I dedicated my review of that concert to Laura’s memory and wrote:
“On behalf of EMR, the audiences who will cherish Laura’s memory, and myself, I add our heartfelt condolences to those of her fellow music-makers. Among many, two salient indelible memories spring to mind: Laura’s exquisite interpretation of the Scheherazade solos in Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite, and her resolute determination, in an Usher Hall concert, to deliver the solos depicting the composer’s wife in Strauss’ ‘Ein Heldenleben’, unfazed by the seismic cannonade emitted from the Military Tattoo in the Castle, earning her one of the most enthusiastic ovations I’ve ever seen. Irreplaceable.”
But, of course, a new leader will be found, perhaps even soon (and perhaps even already). During her illness, Laura made a recording of herself playing the joyful ‘Gigue’ from Bach’s E-major Partita No.3 for solo violin, and Ryan has taken fragments of melody from the Bach, and some of its mood, and fashioned from them a bittersweet memorial. Exuberant canonical violin scampering is interrupted by the lower strings and a grumpy double-bass solo. A more contemplative exploration of the collective soul of string players ensues, with lots of oblique references to the tropes of English string music (Britten’s ‘Frank Bridge Variations’ and Tippett’s ‘Corelli Fantasia’, for example), but also wider string culture, like the double-bass pedal C rhythm from the end of Shostakovich 4th Symphony and the sunny opening of Suk’s ‘Serenade’. The last word goes to the twittering canonical violins, fading into the ether. A poignant, super piece and a fitting tribute to Laura’s memory.
Since Daniel Lozakovich substituted at short notice for an indisposed Hilary Hahn during the orchestra’s Proms in Seoul last December, the stunned BBCSSO has been itching to get him to Glasgow. It took barely a moment to see why. Although, to be brutally candid, I would have preferred a different concerto for my first experience of his playing and interpretation. I have always found the Schumann Violin Concerto a difficult piece to love. It has none of the warmth, romance and grace of the concerti for piano and cello, both of which I do love. It is a profoundly disturbing work, guardedly and obsessively introspective. Clara Schumann, the concerto’s dedicatee Joseph Joachim and Johannes Brahms together conspired to suppress it, feeling it was too revelatory of the decline of the composer’s mental health. They had a point. It is unsettling in the same way as the concealed faces of a Magritte painting are unsettling. But I would travel a fair distance and pay good money to experience the undeniable beauty of an original Magritte, and the violin concerto’s raw “warts-and-all” candour also has beauty that can be unveiled. Daniel Lozakovich, in partnership with Ryan Wigglesworth and every player in the orchestra set about unveiling it. They succeeded marvellously. So, do I now love it? Well, no, I don’t. The playing was absolutely superb. But the two main themes of the first movement are unsatisfying. The first appears to stride purposefully forward, but towards what or where? Schumann doesn’t seem to know, and with disarming frankness lets us feel his pain. The second theme is tender and seems to reach out, but to whom? I see only a Magritte blank face. The slow movement is very similar, tender feelings expressed in a context of overarching loneliness and encroaching frailty. The Polonaise finale’s lightness of spirit goes through the motions of a happy dance, but the contentment of reaching a destination proves unattainable. The performance I heard makes me want to go back and listen again and again on BBC Sounds, as it was revelatory and got right to the profoundly disturbed heart of the work. But I cannot imagine ever regarding that as “listening for pleasure”.
After hearing a work based on the Gigue in Bach’s Third Partita followed by a violin concerto in D minor, it was perhaps not surprising that Daniel’s encore was a movement from Bach’s D-minor Second Partita, the Sarabande, in a reading that was of such meditative and quasi-improvisatory, spellbinding delicacy, that a packed auditorium was almost totally silent. I cannot have been the only audience member to discover that I had been holding my breath – I dare not guess for how long. Easily the best performance of the piece I have ever heard. I would love to hear his Chaconne.
My favourite of Rachmaninov’s three symphonies will probably always be the 2nd, having been ambushed in my teens by a talk and performance by André Previn with the LSO on BBC2 as part of his TV series, my first hearing of it, although I already knew the 1st, the start of its finale being the theme of Panorama in the 70s, and also having heard it in an RTESO concert. But I love all three and, though I came relatively late to the 3rd and didn’t warm to it on first hearing, it is now in my ‘unmissable’ category. It is one of those pieces that reveals new wonders on every hearing, especially under the baton of a conductor who excels in revealing them, with a band of willing accomplices. Ryan Wigglesworth is such a conductor and the BBCSSO is such a band. A plaintive melody that contains the germ of much of the themes opens, before a richly-scored sonata form first movement explores textures not found elsewhere in Rachmaninov’s oeuvre, full of mystery, jazz chords, and unusual timbres used together. The cellos were radiant in the gloriously optimistic second theme. The unusual middle movement is a gorgeous song, with a magical violin solo for Clio, but it frames a flitting scherzo with a weirdly menacing triple-time march interlude. Magical writing from harp and celesta permeates the work and particularly stars in the scherzo interlude. The finale starts in the character of the Symphonic Dances, but again has moments of mystery and strange diversions, as well as a super fugue. And, of course, the obligatory ‘Dies Irae’ quotation.
At a quiet moment in the finale, a mobile ringtone (or possibly an alarm) like the bell of an old vintage American phone sounded unignorably in the stalls. The music had to stop and Ryan turned to face the audience. It did not appear as if the owner of the device was present, so another member of the audience left his seat, located the device and switched it off. Ryan gave the players a bar (or figure) number and the playing resumed, continuing until the exuberant conclusion. “No second takes”, indeed. Apart from that, it was a super and revelatory performance. Barring the unpredictable fickle finger of fate, the 90th season is off to a rollicking start.
photo credit: Martin Shields