Scottish Chamber Orchestra -The Lark Ascending, Edinburgh
Kate Calder
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Manze, conductor, Stephanie Gonley violin, SCO Academy
Usher Hall, 2/5/24
Can this be a chamber orchestra? Seventy-three string players take the stage for Vaughan Williams ‘Concerto Grosso,’ the first work in tonight’s Scottish Chamber Orchestra concert in the Usher Hall. Young musicians from the SCO Academy process on stage with the SCO strings and take their places among the orchestra. We are told that a few have not been playing their instruments for long, but others, like the young woman who shares the front desk with leader, Alfonso Fesch, clearly have talent and experience. Vaughan Williams intended his 1950 composition to work for all levels of competence, and the 400 children who took part in the premiere in the Royal Albert Hall had rehearsed and played in three groups, ‘concertino’ who played the most difficult material, ‘tutti’ who were intermediate musicians and ‘adlib’ beginners. The SCO Academy, which began in 2019, has students from Edinburgh and Glasgow, who came together to rehearse over the last two weekends under Gordon Bragg and Andrew Manze, with other SCO players and tutors from St Mary’s Music School. Tonight’s performance of this richly textured music is a credit to their teachers but mostly to themselves.
The work is in five short movements. The baroque stateliness of the ‘Intrada’ gives way to the livelier ‘Burlesca Ostinata’, in which music for open strings provides less experienced players with a chance to shine. The solemn ‘Sarabande’ has interesting writing for the lower strings, and it’s great to see seven double bassists and eleven cellists giving it their all! There are some tricky rhythms to negotiate in the ‘Scherzo’ before an upbeat march leads back to a reprise of the concerto’s sterner opening. Andrew Manze, who has provided security and inspiration for everyone on stage, brings each section of the Academy players to their feet for their own rounds of applause. In a pre-concert talk Gordon Bragg said this was a rare opportunity to hear the work as the composer had intended: performances are usually for professional orchestras. Tomorrow’s Glasgow concert is being recorded for broadcast on 11th July. Listen and marvel!
The SCO’s Stephanie Gonley is the soloist for ‘The Lark Ascending.’ The strings are joined by two horns, two clarinets and two bassoons – and, initially hidden, Louise Lewis Goodwin on triangle duty. A few years ago in Shetland I disturbed a lark in grass near the shore, and I remember the way the bird started to spiral upwards immediately as soon as it left the ground. Vaughan Williams’ showpiece for violin captures that corkscrew pattern of the bird’s rise as well as its high call. The violin solo, which flows freely without a time signature, suggests the bird’s escape from its earth-bound environment, and is of course the key to the work’s unique charm, but we appreciate too the intimacy of the chamber orchestra’s grounded folk-like melodies. Gonley plays well, from the opening pianissimo and the central soaring flight accompanied by triangle and winds suggesting other birds singing, through to the final high flourish, almost out of the range of human hearing. Manze has a warm, but unsentimental approach, keeping the orchestra moving through their lyrical sections, while giving the soloist the freedom she needs. An excellent performance.
‘It's a strange piece, that Vaughan Williams’ Five’ says someone later on the way out of the hall, and it appears that people have found it so since it was composed in the middle of World War II. Part of the problem with ‘Symphony no 5 in D Major’ is that it doesn’t seem like a response to war at all: there’s nothing savage, or stark about it. Yet the beginning and ending are permeated by a sense of unease, of an unsettled world. Vaughan Williams dedicated the work to Sibelius whom he never met but regarded highly as a fellow lover of his own country and of nature. Andrew Manze speaking earlier said, “He saw in Sibelius someone else digging in his own garden to find the roots of his own culture.” There’s a sense of exploration of that culture in the employment of large forces in the symphony – two horns, two trumpets, three trombones and timpani as well as a full complement of woodwinds and strings. Nevertheless the opening is quiet with an underlying dissonance between the horns and the strings. A less tentative theme for the strings and subdued horns and trumpets gives way to strident brass sounds as crescendos rise and fall away, with the movement ending very quietly. The short Scherzo’s rhythm is tricky with piccolo and flute dominating the first bars, until the other woodwind play above a march for strings not unlike the ‘Peter and the Wolf’ theme. Some harsher bursts of brass and timpani preface the movement’s abrupt end.
Vaughan Williams seems to find surer ground in the ‘Romanza’’ third movement. An organ- like string tone forms the base for a cor anglais solo and other configurations of woodwinds until the whole orchestra moves into a serene sweeping melody. Despite a brief eruption of stormier sounds, the strings make secure progress and the next orchestral crescendo is hopeful rather than raucous. The solo violin, Stephanie Gonley, who has taken over as leader after the interval, has a lark-like cadenza, and the movement ends with harmonious horns and strings.
The brisker tempo of the ‘Passacaglia’ begins in the lower strings and heads quickly into a vigorous triumphant outburst with trombones and timpani. But just as we expect the mood of certainty to lead us through to the end, there’s a short return to the dissonant confusion of the opening section, this time loudly. A calmer mood is restored, at first tentatively, but finally reaching a peaceful conclusion.
Andrew Manze has conducted a varied programme of Vaughan Williams’ work, while introducing a new generation of musicians to the concert-hall stage. It’s been a fascinating evening and we look forward to his return as Principal Guest Conductor later this year.
The last concert of this season is Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ in the Usher Hall on Thursday 9th May. Conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev with the SCO Chorus (director Gregory Batsleer) and soloists, Caroline Sampson, soprano, Rowan Pierce, soprano, Anna Stéphany, mezzo soprano, Thomas Walker, tenor and Roderick Williams, baritone, it promises to be a wonderful performance. There are still some tickets available – tell all your friends!
