The MSO has presented a smartly curated program under the baton of Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey (stepping in for Chief Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Nodoka Okisawa).

While the “star of the show”, as he certainly proved to be, was renowned cellist Steven Isserlis, the collective impact of the four programmed works, which interlocked beautifully, was also commendable.

One imagines Okisawa was responsible for the selection of the curtain-raiser from Japanese composer Yasushi Akutagawa, a figure I suspect is largely unknown to local audiences. His Triptyque for String Orchestra, which dates from 1953, reflects the composer’s deep love for Russian music. In 1954, Northey explained to the audience from the stage, Akutagawa entered the Soviet Union illegally in order to pursue his interest in the music of contemporaries like Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian and Dmitri Kabalevsky in particular.

Triptyque is a beguiling work. All three of its movements have the character of dance music, the lyrical slow middle movement also involves percussion effects delivered by players tapping the bodies of their instruments. Otherwise, the harmonic and melodic idiom is conventional (especially when considered it was also written against the backdrop of the emerging post-War avant-garde scene), and internal references to Russian...