RSNO Clyne & Rachmaninov: Dance! Usher Hall Edinburgh March 21st 2025 Review
RSNO Clyne & Rachmaninov: Dance! At the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was all about how music and dance are forever interwoven with each other and how we as human beings respond almost instinctively to both in movement. The full programme of tonight’s music is listed below.
Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911/12)
Anna Clyne DANCE for cello and orchestra Scottish Premiere (first performance 2019)
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances (1941)
For the purpose of this review, it is probably easier to explore the Ravel and Rachmaninov works, as not only are they both from the first half of the 20th century, but also by composers who already had firmly established reputations when writing them.
Ravel loved dance, it was part of his Basque culture upbringing, so it is little surprise that he chose to explore things further in this eight part work. This work was originally performed as a piano version in 1911 and the orchestral arrangement was published in 1912.
The expressive range of dance, rhythms and emotions that Ravel brings out in this work is still as fresh today as it was over 100 years ago when first heard. Today though, audiences respond far more positively to “Valses nobles et sentimentales” than they did in 1911. Perhaps they were unprepared for just how modern and forward looking this work was at the time.
For me, this work as a whole brings to my mind not only images of the joy of people dancing, but also the golden years of Hollywood musicals when stars like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly and Syd Charisse were silver screen legends. This of course is odd as this work is many years before even “talking pictures” and decades before the peak of this film genre. Maybe this just proves how far ahead of everyone Ravel was with this work?
In sharp contrast to the Ravel work, was Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances. Oddly, although written in 1941 when the composer was firmly established in his new home in America, and written during the golden years of Hollywood musicals, this has a very different feel to it.
Rachmaninov never got over having to flee Russia during the 1917 revolution and for someone who loved his home country and his culture this huge personal loss and that homesickness can be heard in so many places across this work’s three very distinctive movements. Rachmaninov was in a far darker emotional space than Ravel with this work and “Symphonic Dances” must have come as a bit of a surprise to American audiences as there he was far wider known as a pianist than a composer.
In this work, Ravel seems to be a little bit at odds with himself as, yes, there is that joy of music and dance here, but there are also moments where the music and sounds of Imperial Russia have obviously never left his heart and soul.
The most contemporary work performed tonight, Anna Clyne DANCE for cello and orchestra - Scottish Premiere (first performance Santa Cruz, California 2019) is remarkable for many different reasons and anyone who thinks that great classical/orchestral music is no longer made needs to listen to this.
Anna Clyne, a composer who works across many creative genres, has here created not only a contemporary masterpiece for cello, but simply a modern masterpiece that deserves to be performed for many years to come. This work is very much a part of modern composition techniques, but it also effortlessly moves in and out of classical repertoire music making it sound at times familiar but at other times surprisingly bold in its construction.
To bring this work to life requires a very special talent and Senja Rummukainen on cello gave a very emotional performance of this work tonight which often masked the sheer technical skill level required to play piece.
Adding her own expressive interpretation to all works this evening was conductor Emilia Hoving.
As they so often do, the RSNO performed a schedule of music which not only paid tribute to some of the best known names in classical music but also provided that always needed space for contemporary composers and their works.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911/12)
Anna Clyne DANCE for cello and orchestra Scottish Premiere (first performance 2019)
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances (1941)
For the purpose of this review, it is probably easier to explore the Ravel and Rachmaninov works, as not only are they both from the first half of the 20th century, but also by composers who already had firmly established reputations when writing them.
Ravel loved dance, it was part of his Basque culture upbringing, so it is little surprise that he chose to explore things further in this eight part work. This work was originally performed as a piano version in 1911 and the orchestral arrangement was published in 1912.
The expressive range of dance, rhythms and emotions that Ravel brings out in this work is still as fresh today as it was over 100 years ago when first heard. Today though, audiences respond far more positively to “Valses nobles et sentimentales” than they did in 1911. Perhaps they were unprepared for just how modern and forward looking this work was at the time.
For me, this work as a whole brings to my mind not only images of the joy of people dancing, but also the golden years of Hollywood musicals when stars like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly and Syd Charisse were silver screen legends. This of course is odd as this work is many years before even “talking pictures” and decades before the peak of this film genre. Maybe this just proves how far ahead of everyone Ravel was with this work?
In sharp contrast to the Ravel work, was Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances. Oddly, although written in 1941 when the composer was firmly established in his new home in America, and written during the golden years of Hollywood musicals, this has a very different feel to it.
Rachmaninov never got over having to flee Russia during the 1917 revolution and for someone who loved his home country and his culture this huge personal loss and that homesickness can be heard in so many places across this work’s three very distinctive movements. Rachmaninov was in a far darker emotional space than Ravel with this work and “Symphonic Dances” must have come as a bit of a surprise to American audiences as there he was far wider known as a pianist than a composer.
In this work, Ravel seems to be a little bit at odds with himself as, yes, there is that joy of music and dance here, but there are also moments where the music and sounds of Imperial Russia have obviously never left his heart and soul.
The most contemporary work performed tonight, Anna Clyne DANCE for cello and orchestra - Scottish Premiere (first performance Santa Cruz, California 2019) is remarkable for many different reasons and anyone who thinks that great classical/orchestral music is no longer made needs to listen to this.
Anna Clyne, a composer who works across many creative genres, has here created not only a contemporary masterpiece for cello, but simply a modern masterpiece that deserves to be performed for many years to come. This work is very much a part of modern composition techniques, but it also effortlessly moves in and out of classical repertoire music making it sound at times familiar but at other times surprisingly bold in its construction.
To bring this work to life requires a very special talent and Senja Rummukainen on cello gave a very emotional performance of this work tonight which often masked the sheer technical skill level required to play piece.
Adding her own expressive interpretation to all works this evening was conductor Emilia Hoving.
As they so often do, the RSNO performed a schedule of music which not only paid tribute to some of the best known names in classical music but also provided that always needed space for contemporary composers and their works.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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