Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Moldoveanu/Bott, Usher Hall, Edinburgh <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->
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Your support makes all the difference."Feel the emotion," the programme exhorted, but it took until the second half, and a remarkably beautiful account of Johann Strauss's "The Blue Danube", to feel that this was anything more than a routine run-through of pieces strung together as a New Year's Day celebration of sorts. Fortunately for the SCO, and despite an inflated ticket-price (the event raised funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care), the event attracted a capacity crowd determined to enjoy itself.
The Romanian conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu tried hard to engage with the audience, cracking jokes about the city's Hogmanay party and wondering when the imaginary country of Pontevedro, celebrated in Die Lustige Witwe, might be joining the EU. He mentioned his origins in Transylvania, and soon after clownishly pretended to take a bite out of the neck of the surprised leading violin, Ruth Crouch.
Perhaps he'd done something similar to the soprano soloist Catherine Bott, because something seemed to have affected her voice, diminished to a rather boxy, if still sweet, piping sound. It scarcely suited such pieces as the fiery czardas from Die Fledermaus. Not having memorised the words and music (with the exception of the tipsy encore "Schwippslied"), Bott's head was too often in the score, making direct communication of any emotion rather difficult.
Vocally, she was far better suited to the Léhar numbers - the haunting "Vilja" and the less well-known "Liebe, du Himmel auf Erden" from his Paganini - and was rather touching in a quietly seductive account of Heuberger's "Im chambre separée".
The orchestral items opened with the Overture, Polka and Furiant from Smetana's The Bartered Bride. Moldoveanu's departure from the platform after a less than thrilling overture left the dance movements sounding rather lamely tagged on, and a few instrumental fluffs suggested little rehearsal.
Although Moldoveanu brought some flair to the overture to Nielsen's Maskarade and three of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, they sounded subdued. Of the Strauss II polkas to end, the percussion rumbled in "Unter Donner und Blitz" and popped in the "Champagne", during which glasses of bubbly duly appeared. They, at least, sparkled.
Concert is repeated in the Younger Hall, St Andrews tonight (01334 475 000)
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