Music review: RSNO - Bernstein 100, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, the RSNO delivered what was unquestionably one of the most exciting of this season’s programmes on Friday evening. The iconic Symphonic Dances from West Side Story – a score that broke new ground in its composition mixing opera, musical and ballet – were heard with the whole gamut of emotion evoked through Bernstein’s modernist take on Romeo and Juliet. Romanian-born conductor Cristian Măcelaru may have looked a bit rough-hewn in the physicality of his podium style but the results he drew from the orchestra were tight and energetic, from the riot of colour in the Cuban-inspired rhythms of Mambo to the gentle affection of the love song theme from Maria.