RSNO/Hahn at the Usher Hall review: 'A superb little piece'

Music RSNO/Hahn Usher Hall, Edinburgh Keith Bruce five stars THE JUNGLE drums in Scottish music say that RSNO Chief Executive Alistair Mackie is insisting on the near-unanimous approval of his musicians before any approach is made to a successor for Music Director Thomas Sondergard, due to depart in 2026. So the rapport that is clearly developing between the players and Partick Hahn, newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, should be noted. The boyish Austrian first conducted the orchestra as an impressive last-minute replacement for the RSNO’s Conductor Emeritus Alexander Lazarev in November 2022 and his career is developing apace in Germany and his homeland as well as further afield.

Like his first RSNO concert and the one in the coming season, this programme featured core repertoire that is solid box office, Rachmaninov’s hour-long Symphony No 2 preceded by Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1 with Ukrainian Vadym Kholodenko the soloist. The opener, however, was less familiar: the 1943 Capriccio by the conductor’s countryman Gottfried von Einem. It is a superb little piece, packing a huge amount into less than ten minutes.

Redolent of Prokofiev towards the end, it shows the influence of jazz earlier, something at which Hahn also excels. As a concert-starter, it was ideal, the rich orchestration giving every section an early work-out. Kholodenko is simply one of the best classical pianists working today, a superb technician and the most stylish – if least flamboyant – .