SCO: Beethoven Piano Concertos
Queen's Hall 8/10/26
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Sunwook Kim piano/director
Stephanie Gonley violin/director
The first Queen's Hall concert of the season is an engrossing exploration of two Beethoven Piano Concertos by Sunwook Kim, who twenty years ago won the Leeds Piano Competition at the age of 18 and has had an exciting career since, more recently taking a conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music. He plays and directs Beethoven's 4th and 5th Piano Concertos tonight after an extensive playing and directing tour of Beethoven concertos in Europe and Korea. It's a rare treat to hear two piano concertos in the same programme, and unsurprisingly the hall is nearly sold out.
First, leader Stephanie Gonley plays and directs Caroline Shaw's 'Punctum'. Originally written for string quartet it was arranged for string orchestra by the composer in 2022. There's a neat link to last Thursday's concert as the 10 minute piece is based on Bach's chorale 'Herzlich tut mich verlangen' (O Sacred Heart now wounded) from the St Matthew Passion. The piece takes various fragments from the tune which are shared around the different string sections. Despite some sudden louder pizzicato, the sound is mostly smooth and nearly always harmonic. Gradually, the phrases get longer until a full line from the chorale emerges. This breaks up into fragments, and the notes gradually fade away. The SCO strings – welcome back Nikita Naumov as guest principal bass – provide the nuanced soundscape required and the 'discovery' of the Bach is a lovely moment.
The back row fills up with woodwinds, with natural horns and trumpets on either side, Sunwook Kim's performance takes the idea of directing from the keyboard to a new level. The Steinway with its lid down faces the players so that he can see the whole orchestra. When he stands to conduct he uses a full range of arm gestures, and while he's playing, he communicates with nods, twists of the head, significant glances and a hand gesture during the seconds when he's playing with one hand. Though I've seen pianist/directors use some of these tricks before, Kim manages to focus both on his own playing and on the orchestra nearly all of the time. Yet despite this control, tempos are kept flexible and there's room for improvisation and for the music to breathe.
David Kettle's programme notes are essential reading to understanding the background to these works. Beethoven, a virtuoso pianist before he composed, also took an interest in the development of the keyboard. This size of orchestra with natural horns and trumpets in this small hall perhaps lets us hear the concertos as Beethoven intended, but on the piano of his wildest imaginings. After Kim's quiet piano introduction – itself a revolutionary development, the first movement is mostly warm in tone, with the trumpets and timpani held back till the final movement. There's sonorous playing from the horns (Gareth Edwards and Nivanthi Kurunaratne) and from the oboes (Steve Hudson and Katherine Bryer) At the centre is Kim, who fully realises the lyrical and passionate requirements of the score, but never hesitates to be playful.
The mood changes in the strange second movement which alternates an abrasive orchestra against a piano playing simple phrases The orchestra threatens to dominate, but the piano's quiet persistence proceeds to a brief melody before an unsettling truce. The third movement follows without a break, a cheerful rhythmic romp, trumpets and timpani immediately adding extra oomph. The piano part, teasing and provocative is challenged by the orchestra, and replies with more expansive arpeggios and scales. Kim captures the music's fleeting changes of mood and dynamic perfectly on piano, while both directing and responding to the orchestra's contrasting music. Despite the familiarity of the concerto, this performance nevertheless holds you in awe of what's happening and how the next part will turn out. Smiles all round at the interval!
The Beethoven who'd presented his 4th Piano Concerto as part of the famous programme which also premiered his 5th and 6th Symphonies in 1808, had changed markedly by the first performance of his 5th Piano Concerto in 1810. His hearing had almost gone, while Napoleon's troops' invasion of Vienna had caused days of terror and lasting effects on life in the city. Yet the Concerto's daring and grandeur stand up for the resilience of the the human spirit. There's no holding back on the trumpets and drums and the opening's chords for full orchestra separated by the pianist's grand response so familiar to us today may well have shocked the work's first audience. The earworm tunes of the first theme return in guises from brash to delicate. Despite the extravagant requirements of his piano part, Kim keeps a firm grip not only on stormy climaxes but on the intimate focussing on single and paired wind instruments in supportive or interrogative contributions.
The second movement lets us take a breath, and is the still centre of the concerto. The string and wind introduction give way to the piano's seemingly endless roving legato. Horns, flute and oboe accompany the piano's development of the theme. It is very moving. Then as the piano notes fade, a tentative few bars lead directly to the final movement, with full orchestra returning in the descending theme with its Scotch-snap rhythms and strident brass. The second theme has a lilting syncopation for the piano. The majesty of the first movement is replaced by exuberance with a sense of cheerful competition and collaboration between orchestra and piano. In a nice touch Kim's cadenza is accompanied by a quietly struck drum-beat (Stefan Becket guest timpanist) before the piano's daring pause heralds the final orchestral gallop.
This wonderful event is greeted with much applause, cheers and even a standing ovation, always difficult in these pews!
A year ago Maxim Emelyanychev conducted the last three Mozart Symphonies in a concert which recalled the SCO's 2008 recording with Charles Mackerras, then their Conductor Laureate. This concert revisits another SCO/Mackerras recording, the 2009 double CD of Beethoven's 3rd, 4th and 5th Concertos, which can be heard in the online programme notes.
