RSNO & Maya Iwabuchi, Edinburgh review: 'enjoyable subtleties'

RSNO, Emilia Hoving & Maya Iwabuchi, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★

It might be churlish (though probably not inaccurate) to suggest orchestras are saving themselves a penny or two when they invite their own musicians – rather than international soloists – to perform concertos. More kindly and positively, it allows those musicians their chance to shine in a role that showcases different skills from their orchestral ones, and it gives audiences a chance to see a familiar face in a newand (hopefully) revealing context.

Both of those benefits were clearly on display when Maya Iwabuchi – more often seen in the RSNO Leader’s seat – took to the stage in front of her band for Brahms’s Violin Concerto. And she gave a fascinating performance, agile, clean and clear-headed, with exquisitely shaped melodies in the Concerto’s hushed slow movement, but so unshowy it felt almost self-effacing. Her sound was strangely subdued, too, so even a handful of orchestral instruments tended to drown her out – a shame, as she had plenty to say about the expansive Concerto and its monumental architecture, and all the effortless eloquence with which to say it.

READ MORE: Scottish Opera: Turandot, Glasgow: 'electrifying'

There was the sense, too, that the RSNO under young Finnish conductor Emilia Hoving were holding things back to accommodate their soloist. That sense of care and sensitivity was already there in Britta Bystromöm’s atmospheric A Walk to Brahms’ Violin Concerto, which had preceded the main work, and returned to magical effect in Saariaho’s exquisite but chilly Ciel d’hiver after the interval, all brooding, icy stillness and impeccably painted shades of grey. Hoving’s care with sound and meaning continued in her closing Sibelius Sixth Symphony, which erupted with volatile energy, but also luxuriated in the composer’s clarity and restraint, with the conductor finding wonderfully shifting significances in its hypnotic patterning and teeming textures. A concert of considerable restraint, perhaps, but also of enjoyable subtleties.

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