It was surely Mozart’s Requiem in D minor that packed the crowd into this, the best-attended Royal Scottish National Orchestra concert I’ve witnessed all season, and that crowd fairly roared its approval at the end. Once the music had stopped. Rightly so: this was Mozart that was big yet subtle, with a modern symphony orchestra and a hundred-strong chorus that nonetheless performed with admirable precision and attention to detail. The work began, for example, with soft strings and quietly keening winds that seemed to invite the audience in, tempered by assertive trumpets and a terrifically lyrical trio of trombones.
Strings played with vibrato and the gentle bounce of the period timpani was one of the few concessions to the historically informed tradition, aside from a stunning pair of basset horns whose gentle wheeze at the start of the Recordare was to die for. There was noticeably robust weight to the singing of the RSNO Chorus too, with a pleasing bite to the big fugal choruses (except for the Hosanna which was a little woolly) and huge presence to the big climaxes, such as the Dies irae or the end of the Sequenza. Tenor Jamie MacDougall sounded unfortunately thin at the top of his range, but otherwise the four soloists made a satisfying quartet.
The RSNO’s Principal Guest Conductor, Patrick Hahn, was an understated, elfin presence on the podium, but a remarkably insightful one too, scaling back the string vibrato to chilling effect at the start of the Lachrymosa and shaping the whole thing with forward momentum that nonetheless retained the music's meditative poise. He was also responsible for the decision to elide together the concert’s opening pair of works, though this felt more practical than perceptive, as though done more to retain the mood unbroken by applause rather than to bring to light any particular links between Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang and Berg’s Violin Concerto. Nevertheless, both pieces maintained the programme’s mood of reflection, the Beethoven benefiting from wistful strings and choral singing that, while slightly lacking in focus, seemed to fit with the soft focus of the orchestral sound. Paul Whittaker deserves a word, too, for his British Sign Language interpretation of the concert, not only interpreting the sung texts of both the Beethoven and the Mozart, but translating the music itself into a series of thoughtful, physical gestures that added an extra layer even for the hearing audience members.
He didn’t do much during the Berg, but such an expertly balanced performance needed no extras. Soloist Carolin Widmann was first among equals, drawing her strength from the members of the orchestra and complementing rather than dominating them. Often her chalky, questioning tone was set against the orchestra’s suave persuasiveness, nowhere more so than in Berg’s treatment of the Bach chorale melody, which seemed to sail serenely forwards amidst the constantly changing soundscape. The cry of pain that opened the second movement carried unusually strident urgency in what was an orchestral landscape of mostly profound lyricism, and Hahn’s moulding of the work held in expert tension its warm consolation and eerie strangeness. Having him on the orchestral team is a real boon for the RSNO. They’ve just announced that he has been honoured with conducting the final concert of their 2025-26 season, which is surely a testament to how much they value him.
