Mozart Flute Concerto
Queen’s Hall 14/11/24
Scottish Chamber Orchestra , Andrew Manze, conductor, André Cebrián, flute
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra includes in its ranks a number of players who are also well-known solo artists. This year’s concert series features several of them in concertos with the orchestra – clarinettists Maximiliano Martin and William Stafford (12th December) , Nikita Naumov (20th March), bassoonist Cerys Ambrose-Evans (3rd April) and tonight flautist André Cebrián who stars in Mozart’s ‘Flute Concerto No 1 in G Major’.
The SCO’s Principal Guest Conductor, Andrew Manze, introduces both halves of the programme: each contains a well-known work by Mozart and a shorter, more unexpected work, Schoenberg’s ‘Chamber Symphony No 2’ to start the concert, and the early Baroque composer, Schmelzer’s ‘Serenata’, arranged by Andrew Manze, just after the interval. I always enjoy introductory talks, and this conductor is an enthusiastic and witty guide to tonight’s music, whose composers all spent part of their careers in Vienna. He says little about the Flute Concerto, only mentioning the popular story that Mozart didn’t like the flute, saying he feels sure if Mozart “had heard André play he’d have written dozens of flute concertos.” Schoenberg, he says, liberated music from being tied to the key signature – the Chamber Symphony is in the key of E flat minor, but you’d struggle to hear it till the end. Helpfully he outlines the architecture of the two movements.
There’s no percussion, but 36 other musicians take part in the ‘Serenata’, which the composer began in his early, less theoretical days in 1906,and laid aside for over thirty years. By this time he was re-introducing tonal music into his compositions, although he was puzzled when he looked again at his earlier work, scarcely believing he had written it himself. The adagio first movement is rather serious, perhaps reflecting some of this musical tension: the sombre flute melody is picked up by other instruments and eventually the whole orchestra. A four-note theme on solo violin is introduced and it too is passed around groups of instruments, as a heavy solemnity continues to prevail. The con fuoco second movement is an off-beat waltz which is much lighter in tone, the instrumental flurries all steered expertly by Andrew Manze. A burst on the piccolo changes the mood and we return to the pace of the first section, giving the work a quiet close.
André Cebrián slips off the stage to be replaced by Alba Vinti López as the second flute. He re-emerges as the soloist for Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 1 in G, written when Mozart was 21, and launches the first movement with the orchestra at a brisk pace which belies its allegro maestoso (majestic)descriptor. The flute allows the orchestra to complete the first theme before his own solo entry. His performance is dazzling, the flute’s line above the orchestra featuring syncopations, trills and decorations. Andrew Manze keeps the orchestra steady while allowing the soloist his wings – much easier said than done! Inspiring and witty playing all round, which culminates in a cadenza which adds some bird-song to the mix. It concludes just before the end of the movement and there’s a spontaneous burst of applause.
In the second movement adagio ma non troppo the serene music is given a chance to breathe and the violin develops a lovely legato ‘aria’ initially over delicate strings, before combinations with other wind instruments are explored against string pizzicato. The beautiful cadenza here is shorter and simpler, focussing on the instrument’s lower notes. The final movement rondo: tempo di menuetto is a good natured dance, with a steady rhythm set by the orchestra before André Cebrián comes in with a speedier off-beat variant which alternates with the dance version until he joins them in a decorated version of the minuet. We’ve heard relatively little from the flutes in the orchestra, but there’s a brief harmonising for all three, until the soloist turns round as if to silence them with a mock reprimand. The movement in which the soloist displays more stunning virtuosity ends rather quietly, to a very appreciative reception. As an encore André Cebrián plays, in memory of the two hundred people killed in the Valencia floods, “a little song by De Falla” with soft drone accompaniment on the double bass.
Just before that, he has announced an interval sale of his CDs, in aid of the musicians and music societies whose instruments and facilities had been lost in the floods about which he speaks movingly. There’s a long queue to buy these, and to give donations, and at the end of the concert Andrew Manze announces that nearly £3,500 has been raised, with more donations being given on the way out.
The second half begins with the conductor’s arrangement of some little known music written by Heinrich Schmelzer, a famous violinist and composer in Emperor Leopold I’s Viennese court. Andrew Manze enjoys his music and believes he was “a lot of fun”. The five movements of the 1667 ‘Serenata’ played without a break are certainly very agreeable. Modern trumpets and horns are used to add some oomph while the percussionist, Richard Cartlidge, plays an authentic-sounding old drum, and some quietly tinkling bells, used apparently in funeral ceremonies, which accompany the violins towards the end of the work. Before that we’ve had vigorous activity from trumpets and drums, the violins strummed like guitars, horns and bassoons finding splendid harmony together and a fine oboe solo. An entertaining interlude!
The ‘Symphony No 35 in D major (Haffner)’ is a core work for the SCO, and their recording with Charles Mackerras is still considered one of the finest ever made. Andrew Manze said that as Mozart was writing the symphony he asked his father to send him another work which he’d previously written for the Salzburg Haffner family. On receipt, Mozart wrote, “I didn’t remember it at all – it’s rather good.” The symphony he wrote for them wasn’t bad either, and packs a great deal into its twenty minutes. Authentic instruments are taken up by trumpeters, Peter Franks and Shaun Harrold, and horn-players Ken Henderson and Jamie Shield, and there’s a period sound in the stirring opening to the first movement, allegro con spirito. The movement is punctuated with repetitions of this energetic passage played by the whole orchestra, with brass blazing. Manze is happy to let the players enjoy themselves here, but it’s noticeable throughout the work that he’s also interested in exploring the different instrumental textures and combinations of sounds in the quieter passages. This is especially obvious in the second movement andante which the trumpets and drums sit out. Here the crispness of the violins, with their separated notes precisely marked, sits well under the more legato phrasing in the winds. The minuetto starts with a martial feel when trumpets and timpani make a forceful entrance, and then alternate with the more douce responses from the strings. Horns and bassoons predominate in the quiet rhythmical trio before the return of the minuet’s contrasting moods. The final movement presto is full of infectious gaiety from the beginning, with wonderful rolling timpani added to the surge. The rapturous applause is well-deserved by the orchestra and Andrew Manze who’s introduced us to new music as well as providing exciting accounts of the Mozart Concerto and Symphony. I doubt if I was the only audience member finding the trek home or to the bus-stop made easier by humming the last movement - probably, in my case, in a slowed-down version…
Details of all the SCO’s concerts and David Kettle’s programme notes can be found at What's on | Scottish Chamber Orchestra
