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“Emotionally evocative, tense, and thrilling”

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As someone who has never attended orchestra in my life, I was hesitant about taking up this review. I did not have to worry – as it turned out, Glasslands and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 were incredibly accessible to those without knowledge of orchestra and took me to worlds I didn’t think possible through music alone.

The show opened with the wonderful Anna Clyne’s Glasslands, full of Irish myth and wonder. It was the first of many extremes of the night and set a fantastic tone for the Shostakovich symphony to come. As a big enthusiast of the fantasy genre (although mostly in books), I was enthralled by the myriad of mystical worlds Clyne brought us through with the help of conductor Jonathon Heyward and saxophonist Jess Gillam. The RSNO created such an atmosphere through the auditorium – each minute as thrilling as (if not more than) the last. A true story was created on stage, with the entire orchestra literally and figuratively on the same page. Behind each note played was deep passion and skill. The piece allowed Gillam to demonstrate her mastery over the instrument as she flew from the highs of a banshee’s (melodious) shrieks to the lows of a funeral march. It was challenging to take the eye off the wonderful interactions between the conductor and the soloist, who stole attention with the beautiful Glasslands piece. When Gillam played an encore after a thunderous applause, I knew that if the second piece were anything like the first, it would blow me away.

The beginning of Shostakovich’s piece was beautiful, in a gloomy and foreboding way. Ominous and slow, the tension built into the room until you could hear a pin drop. Between each section, in the silence, only then did people dare breathe and cough – other than that, the haunting melody spellbound the auditorium. I was enraptured, watching this group create art that you could feel in the air. The sense was that war was over, and it had been a victory, but the cost and the consequential new world were not easy. Some segments bordered on miserably victorious; others, a reluctant kind of cheerful. The whole orchestra created a wide range of experiences within the sixty-five-minute piece, conjuring up precipices and silences that could (and did!) take your breath away. At times, certain sections dragged on and yielded momentum, making the audience lose engagement.

However, each further section created a renewed sense of vitality within the concert. It was a masterful display of music, shifting from discordant to soft and silken in the blink of an eye. Each shift in music felt like a change in ideals, in philosophy: the military-esque drumming and crescendo created a character I didn’t think was possible to create. It’s little wonder this piece was banned for several years: the emotion that the RSNO brought out was physically embodied in their conductor, who evoked passion and strength in every movement. 

While it may be evident that I don’t know my musical terms, I did not need to be an expert to enjoy both performances thoroughly. It is strongly recommended to anyone who has not experienced orchestral music before (and, of course, to those who have). The complex pieces wove a complex, complete story with a dynamic sense of style and beauty, and each section had a hand in contributing to the tale being told. Across the auditorium, as the end of the piece grew solemn, the entire audience was gripped, and the thunderous round of applause at the end was most certainly deserved.