Valery Gergiev and Nicola Benedetti in rehearsal, photo: Douglas Robertson / IAM
The series of concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra were a highlight of the Edinburgh International Festival. Gergiev’s direction and the ensembles performance of music from Szymanowski has met with an ethusiastic reception of numerous critics and journalists in the UK
The reviews frequently point to the fruitful juxtapostion of Szymanowski’s music with that odf Brahms. Malcolm Goodare’s five/five star review of the concerts for the Herald Scotland states "The two complemented each other nicely: the dark and dangerous world of Szymanowski and the stately, powerful yet solemn Brahms." Goodare goes on to praise the Polish composer’s music:
The menacing and crisp opening of Szymanowski's first symphony rocked between wild passages and more mournful solos from strings and woodwind. The movement ended, however, in a raging fury from the whole orchestra, with a bang, then a final quiet chord, leaving the fury hanging. (…).Nicola Benedetti played it [Szymanowski's first violin concerto] with spectacular energy and emotion. In the dramatic cadenza she brought out sounds in the lower register of her violin that I had never heard before. It sounded almost demonic but the concerto ended with a hopeful, pleasing tune.
Two more reviews for the Scotsman award the concert residency with four stars. Ken Walton writes that
What we witnessed was a fulminating post-Romantic stew, billowing waves of angst, glacial outbursts of chromatic complexity, and a sense in this unwavering performance that the journey for the Polish composer was about to begin.
David Kettle emphasises that
Star of the show was Szymanowski’s Second Symphony, a piece that’s rarely performed – although when you hear its lush orchestration and surging climaxes, you begin to wonder why. It’s the ideal piece for Gergiev’s driven showmanship. And although he gave a sparkling performance full of energy and colour, it wasn’t just empty show.
Editor: SRS
Read more on the London Symphony Orchestra Brings Szymanowski to Edinburgh