Witnessing a partnership such as Piotr Anderszewski and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra makes one wonder why a conductor should ever be considered necessary for performing Mozart's piano concertos. In the second of three concerts together marking the Mozart anniversary, in which the pianist directed from the keyboard, the relationship between soloist and orchestra became a dialogue between two equal partners, each side listening and responding to the other in a way that wouldn't seem possible with the addition of a mediating influence from the podium.
This was a programme of contrasts, in which one of the sunniest of Mozart's concertos, the A major K414, was juxtaposed with one of the darkest and most tempestuous, the C minor K491. Not that Anderszewski dwelt on the opposing characters of these works. Where most soloists project their interpretation into the auditorium, Anderszewski draws his audience in. There was nothing remotely flashy or extravagant about these performances, with the simplicity and ease of K414 left unadorned in playing of fluidity and ease.
The drama of the outer movements of K491 was as much about the orchestra as the soloist, with Anderszewski at times casting himself in the role of accompanist. However, where the music demanded playing of power and brilliance, he provided it - dazzlingly, in the case of the increasingly vehement succession of variations in the finale.
As an introduction and interlude between the concertos, there was chamber music for orchestra from Stravinsky at his most neoclassical. Dumbarton Oaks and Eight Miniatures were written over 20 years apart, but they share the same spare simplicity (though scored for different combinations of 15 instruments), which was well expressed by the SCO players, directed from the violin by guest leader Alexander Janiczek. Reflecting their origins as five-finger piano exercises, the often brief Eight Miniatures were playfully contrasting thematic and rhythmic studies. Dumbarton Oaks was delightfully buoyant and urbane, despite the occasional muddying of the textures from slightly off-time French horns.
