Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos
Queens Hall, 9/1/25
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Rachel Podger director/violin, André Cebrián flute, Marta Gómez flute
This Thursday afternoon concert is nearly a sell-out, by far the biggest audience since the SCO included three matinee concerts in their regular programme. Baroque violinist Rachel Podger’s SCO debut has drawn in the crowds and it’s good to see younger audience members, including a contingent from St Mary’s Music School, who are raptly attentive throughout.
The programme compels such a response from Rachel Podger’s welcoming and informative introduction through the lively renditions of all-time favourites with many delightful twists along the way. She tells us that in the opening ‘Brandenburg Concerto No 1’, the two horns make “quite a clatter – but in a good way” and shows us how small her piccolo violin is by comparing it to Afonso Fesch’s standard sized violin. She stands a little apart from the rest of the strings (also standing) on the left of the stage; the continuo group, Jan Waterfield on harpsichord, Toby Carr on lute and Jamie Kenny on bass are on the right, along with the three oboes, one bassoon and these period horns, played by Boštjan Lipovšek and Jamie Shield.
The horns have a different rhythm and melody from the rest of the orchestra so they have a big impact in this boisterous first movement. They rest in the second movement adagio but flourish again in the faster third movement where they often play with Rachel Podger on her piccolo violin, its higher notes competing with the horns at the upper end of their range. The finale marked menuetto alternates a graceful minuet with contrasting dances, one of which calls for percussive bow-tapping by the string section.
The orchestra and audience are used to Maxim Emelyanychev’s regular rearrangements of players on stage. Rachel Podger seems to be of a like mind, configuring the positions of the instruments to suit each work. The ‘Sonata in E Minor’ by Bach’s near-contemporary Telemann was written for a smaller string section, continuo and woodwind. The strings are arranged on both sides of the stage with the woodwinds tucked in behind them, and this spreading out gives a lovely transparent sound with the lute and harpsichord music heard clearly underneath the others. Rachel Podger stands in the first violin position for this work, turned toward the orchestra and directing by gestures and nods, while in the concertos she’s more obviously a soloist, mostly facing the audience. The Sonata is in five short movements, with varied instrumental groups taking the limelight. The upbeat second movement features the string section principals in some sections, and the oboes and bassoons play a jolly country dance in the ‘Air’. The viola takes the lead with the woodwind in the fourth movement ‘Tendresse.’
The first half ends, as Rachel Podger explained earlier, “with a taster of another Brandenburg concerto but with extra filling”. Bach re-used his opening movement of the third concerto for the opening Sinfonia to his Cantata 174 and added parts for horns and oboes. The original strings only version is one of my favourite Bach pieces and it remains intact under this added oomph. The horns are given a prominent place on the left of the stage while the cellos seated on the right of the stage provide the right balance in a work where they play a prominent part – the lovely descending runs at the end of the first theme. The horns and oboes working together and in distinctive separate interventions make this a splendidly joyous work.
The SCO Principal Flute, André Cebrián and Sub-Principal Flute, Marta Gómez, share the front of the stage with Rachel Podger for Bach’s ‘Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G Major’. This is a stunning performance of a very well-known work, whose first movement theme provides an welcome earworm for days to come. The collaboration between the flautists and the solo violin is both precise and fluid, each player reacting to the two others with subtle adjustments to the pace, the rhythm and the melodic line. There are only short hints of solos or cadenzas in these concertos, but in Rachel Podger’s complicated weaving around the flutes’ harmonies there’s a sense, if not of improvisation, certainly of something (to extend her baking metaphor) she – and Bach - have made earlier, and she’s happy to decorate now! In the second movement andante the exchanges are even more elaborate with the music sometimes slowing to relish the ornamentation. The orchestra moves straight into the presto final movement which begins with a syncopated canon for the string sections in turn before the flutes join in at the end. Further witty and intricate work from the flutes and the solo violin continues breathlessly until the concluding bars.
As the flautists leave to well-deserved applause, another section of the orchestra enters, trumpeters Peter Franks, Shaun Harrold and Marcus Pope and timpanist Louise Lewis Goodwin. (SCO trombonist Duncan Wilson commented on Facebook: “I'm sorry to be missing this one. I blame Bach for not writing trombone parts!”) The distinctive sound of the period trumpets and drums brings stately pomp to the opening of the ‘Orchestral Suite No 3 in D Minor’ before giving way to virtuosic playing from the strings in the middle section of this first movement with Rachel Podger back in her leader’s place at the left of the orchestra. The ‘Air’, later popularly known as ‘Air on a G String’ is played tenderly by legato strings and oboes above the lute and harpsichord. There’s been much swaying and smiling during today’s concert and the Gavotte, Bourrée and Gigue finish the concert rhythmically, tunefully and cheerfully.
This matinee which receives a prolonged ovation has been a perfect antidote to the bitter January weather, and an outstanding SCO debut for Rachel Podger, who will surely be invited back again soon.
Geneva Lewis is the violin soloist in the Sibelius ‘Violin Concerto’ in next Thursday’s SCO concert conducted by Joseph Swensen. The next matinee is on Sunday 9th March when Pekka Kuusisto and Friends give a concert of intimate chamber music, and the next Thursday matinee is on 3rd April when François Leleux conducts Mozart’s ‘Bassoon Concerto’ with the SCO’s Cerys Ambrose-Evans as soloist.
