Page 221 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

syncopations in the Adagio became a kind of tectonic shifting under the surface; the
climaxes were catastrophic.

That, I assumed, would be peak Bruckner for the weekend. But Sunday afternoon
saw Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra serve up a Ninth
Symphony every bit as compelling. A charismatic, balletic conductor, Chauhan jabbed
and scooped at the air in front of him; passages that could have been yet more
repetition were held in absolute tension with a poised little finger. Most remarkable,
however, was the journey from laid-back sonic beauty in the first movement via an
extravagantly off-kilter push and pull in the scherzo to a phenomenally intense third
movement, by turns majestic and breathtakingly gentle. As a Bruckner first-timer
marvelled to me at the end, “What’s not to love?”