Robin Ticciati & SCO - Haydn: Symphonies 31, 70 & 101 - The Guardian (Live Review)

Robin Ticciati's fastidious and brilliant Clock symphony was hors d'oeuvre to an evening of French music, with Mitsuko Uchida stunning in Ravel's concerto

Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra have been on a Haydn binge - maybe not the sexiest box-office fodder (turnouts in recent months have been notably low), but grounds for some of the most spontaneous, subtle, daring playing we've heard yet from this extraordinary partnership. Last week, they recorded a clutch of the late symphonies, and evidence of fastidious work done under the microphone was everywhere in the ultra-attuned, exhilaratingly free performance of No 101 (The Clock) that ended this concert. Inner lines were alert. The tick-tock Andante had a fragile grandeur that was disarming and poignant. In the brilliantly rustic Minuet you could really feel the ground beneath the orchestra's feet. Look forward to that recording.