RSNO 'Naked Classics': The Planets

Appearances can be deceptive. Take the Usher Hall—on the outside, it’s essentially a building site, one which comes and goes, and which has been doing so for the past three or so years. At present, the building works are very much with us, but fortunately Edinburgh's landmark concert hall itself is open—for now anyway; let’s not jinx it.

The other good news is that the sizeable hole in the ground in front of the Usher doesn’t appear to be putting the masses off; not judging by tonight, which saw the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) under their assistant conductor David Danzmayr present us with Gustav Holst’s The Planets as part of their Naked Classics series.

To outline Naked Classics, the orchestra take a piece of music and dissect it for the audience with the aid of presenter Paul Rissmann. We then learn about compositional techniques as well as the context in which the piece was written, and about the composer himself.

Aided by some fantastic graphics and peppered with just the right amount of accessible humour, such concerts are ideal for those of school age, music students and adults alike. To open we hear Fabian Waksman’s 'Solar Storm', intended to compliment Holst and in doing so quite nicely, it becomes a condensed modern-day Planets. The rest of the first half is our lesson. With a few minutes dedicated to each of the movements, it’s the ideal introduction to the piece and short orchestral excerpts leave us anticipating the full performance in the second half.

We aren’t disappointed. The large string section are united throughout, and their treatment of the deep harmonies is fantastic. The sizeable wind section presents florid solos which are heard above the mass of strings. The brasses relish such vibrant writing: their dynamic contrast makes the work one of moving excitement. If there was an aspect of tonight’s performance to quibble, it would only be the opening work.  A similar addition to the main programme wouldn’t have been missed; nevertheless the presentation of new works to audiences like the one tonight is no bad thing.