Music review: Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

That this was the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s first season concert featuring London-born, Edinburgh-educated, New York-based Anna Clyne as associate composer almost overshadowed the fact that it was the remarkable Finnish violinist/conductor Pekka Kuusisto’s second as featured artist. No concert featuring Kuusisto can fail to convey his huge musical personality, though, and with the SCO it was there in abundance. His opening Beethoven Creatures of Prometheus Overture was rugged and gutsy, directed with vigour from the violin, and he injected a similar vigour and vim into Mozart’s lightweight but charming K136 Divertimento. To close, his Haydn “Il distratto” Symphony was simply superb – brisk, biting, boldly characterised, and with its copious musical jokes (a sudden spate of tuning up, or violins seeming to forget why they were there) played deliciously straight, and as a result genuinely funny.