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

Scottish Chamber Orchestra's twinning of a great work each by Haydn and Mahler was a triumph, says Ivan Hewett

Two great works, alike only in their daring, made up this terrific concert from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The first, Haydn's 70th symphony, launched with pure D-major high spirits, but it soon became clear this was another of Haydn's exercises in sly wit. The phrases had a way of leaping into mid-air, pausing as if temporarily lost, and then shooting joyously to their destination.

The orchestra and its conductor Robin Ticciati relished all this. The sound was vivid and clear, and the timpani made a joyous rhythmic clatter, but there was none of that dogmatic, driven quality some chamber orchestras give to Haydn.

The second tune in the 1st movement is hardly less chirpy than the first, but there's the germ of something lyrical too, which Ticciati brought out with an expressive left hand. In Haydn, lyricism and wit co-exist happily. That's what makes him so great.