SCO/Kovacevich, City Halls, Glasgow
The Director's Notes series was an interesting experiment: foursome respected pianists, three of whom wreak regularly with the Scots English Chamber Orchestra, appearance in the dual capacity of soloist and conductor in programmes of the classical works that are the orchestra's nub repertory. Predictably, the results were mixed: interesting and thought-provoking at times, simply with sufficiency procedure accounts to advise that most instrumentalists should stick to what they know topper without pickings up analogue careers as conductors.
Like the piano player Christian Zechariah, world Health Organization appeared with the orchestra before this month, Stephen Kovacevich has what passes for an orthodox conducting technique. Quite how much this informed the resulting performances, however, was open to rendition.First base, though, there was his donation as soloist: an abrupt and unquestionably hard-edged account of Mozart's C major Pianoforte Concerto K503, with or so quite uneven passagework, particularly in the first base motion. Once his pianistic duties were dispensed with, Kovacevich took to the rostrum for an account of Mozart's Haffner Philharmonic. It was solid, only scarcely revelatory; however, it did expect behind the surface polish to convey come out about interesting inside information in the inner part writing.The real test was Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. The SCO is generally a persuasive counselor-at-law for this Cinderella of the composer's symphonies, and this was a buoyant, affable explanation - even if it missed the panache of a full-speed-ahead Swensen operation or the gravitas of a Mackerras.Just how much of that could be attributed to Kovacevich? The crystallise lack of synchrony betwixt orchestra and conductor in the opening adagio suggesting that this was a semi-autonomous execution from the SCO. The outcome was reliable, only had cipher to raise it higher up a modus operandi grade, particularly in the decidedly pedestrian account of the finis.
