91Èȱ¬

‘Sizzling’ was how The Guardian described the playing of pianist Behzod Abduraimov. For The Arts Desk, meanwhile, he’s a ‘rare and enchanting musician’: the ideal performer, in other words, for a masterwork as witty, as joyful and as impulsive as Beethoven’s sunlit First Piano Concerto. That’s the burst of light and joy at the heart of this concert from the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra under its Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard, but there’s no letting up after the interval, as Dausgaard conducts a symphony he’s made his own: Nielsen’s ebullient Sinfonia espansiva. Ravel’s La valse sets things spinning: a sumptuous, sinister evocation of an era – and a culture – waltzing ever closer to the abyss.

Image: Elizabeth Watts © Marco Borggreve