Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony
Queen’s Hall 20/3/25
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Richard Egarr conductor, Nikita Naumov double bass
Nikita Naumov, principal double bass with the Scottish Chamber orchestra for fourteen years, before moving to the same position with the RSNO earlier this season, returns tonight as soloist in the UK premiere of Peter Eötvös’s ‘Aurora for double-bass solo and accordion’. His dedicated and virtuosic performances as well as his engaging personality have encouraged a near-sell-out audience along tonight. Richard Egarr, replacement for Mark Wigglesworth as conductor, tells us that Nikita Naumova has lived a long time with this work. Commissioned in 2019 by the SCO and three other European orchestras, it was due to be premiered by the bassist in 2020. Inspired by Eötvös’ experience of the Aurora Borealis from a plane, it relies musically on the triangle formed by the soloist at the front of the stage and the two other bass players – more of that anon.
First we’re to have another work about music up aloft, the US composer, Aaron Jay Kernis’s 1990 composition for string orchestra, ‘Musica Celestis.’ Inspired by Hildegard of Bingen and by the medieval theological concept of angels endlessly praising God, the piece features the higher notes of the violins, often layered in differently pitched legato lines. This shimmering effect is broken up by tentative fragments of melody and also, in a more rhythmic passage by louder pizzicato from the lower strings. With this work and the Eötvös both written for string orchestra, young guest principals are given valuable experience. Guest leader is award-winning French violinist, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, who recently joined the Chiaroscuro Quartet; Scottish Borderer and former pupil of St Mary’s Music School, Hugh Mackay, is guest principal cellist – only 24, he’s won a number of prizes and is clearly a musician to look out for.
Toby Hughes, guest principal bass, has some years more experience, and comes into the limelight with the SCO’s sub-principal bass player, Jamie Kenny as the two other participants in Eötvös’s ‘triangle’. Nikita Naumov arrives to rousing applause, and greets old friends in the orchestra. The cellists have left and the accordionist, Djordje Gajic sits near the front. From Serbia, he teaches accordion at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where one of his students was Ryan Corbett, and is an important figure in the development of the accordion as a classical as well as a folk instrument.
The work in three eight-minute movements is an extensive workout for the three bass players, with Toby Hughes on the right at the back of the stage and Jamie Kenny on the left. They begin by mimicking Nikita Naumov’s combination of sliding notes and pizzicato. Richard Egarr has told us that the basses are tuned a semitone apart, and the resulting sounds, though fascinating, are not pretty! Meanwhile the accordion makes complementary wheezing noises. The composer said of his experience flying through the aurora borealis, “I have never seen anything so powerful or such a blaze of colour. Not only beautiful but… almost threatening and simply monumental. In ‘Aurora’ I have attempted to reproduce that moment when I felt myself as an element in the cosmos.” The only auroras I’ve seen were underwhelming wispy movements of white (while nearby cameras were photographing vivid green swirls) – so my first response to Eötvös’s work was to thank goodness I’d missed all that! But it’s clear that the intensity of his vision drives what he expects of his musicians: their musical and physical forces working on their instruments may be said to represent the human being “as an element of the cosmos”.
Although I’ve often noted how effective a double bass is as a percussive instrument, I’ve never before been aware how resonant the large wooden body of the instrument is both to sounds from the strings and from percussive taps with the bow or thumps with the hands. There is, on a first hearing, not much difference between the three sections, apart from changes in pace, which Richard Egarr indicates by holding a steady beat in the rest of the orchestra. In the second movement, the accordion seems to echo some of these basses’ resonant sounds. Then the soloist plays lyrical passages on low notes, separately from the other bassists, before a number of high slides with eerie backing from the other strings, rather like a glass harmonica. The third movement sees some more collaboration between the basses and ends with more complicated percussive effects, imitated in the higher string accompaniment.
Whatever else, this work is a tour de force. Eötvös died a year ago at the age of 80, and one hopes he had an opportunity to hear his 2019 work played. There’s terrific applause, Nikita Naumov is given flowers, and eventually provides an encore, possibly one of his own composition, which also features the experimental side of bass-playing but in a more humorous way.
After the interval, the playing area is crowded with 40 musicians for the second part of the programme, Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 in F Major (Pastoral). SCO performances using natural horns and trumpets always work well in the Queen’s Hall, where the acoustic brings clarity to the detail. Tonight I’m impressed by the warmth of the first movement, nature at its most balmy after the harshness of the north; all of the winds contribute to the sound but especially the horns, rasping delightfully. Guest leader, Boštjan Lipovšek, brilliant throughout the work with fellow horn player, Jamie Shield, gets a special round of applause at the end. In Beethoven’s depiction of the brook in the second movement the flutes, oboes and clarinets, seated near each other, time to perfection their bird-song mimicry with its beautiful harmonies. In the third movement’s rustic dance, Alison Green’s enjoyment of her wrong note interventions makes her fellow-bassoonist Cerys Ambrose-Evans smile, and when the trumpets, trombones and timpani roll into action in the storm, and the piccolo shrieks, it’s a well-judged and effective climax. I saw the Met broadcast of ‘Fidelio’ earlier in the week and in the opera (also with fabulous horn playing) and tonight’s symphony, the way that Beethoven carries though ideas and melodies with blistering conviction, is always one of the delights of listening to his music.
There’s been a buzz of enjoyment around tonight’s concert and the audience gives a well-deserved ovation to Richard Egarr for his exemplary stand-in performance and to the orchestra. Many are also talking about the SCO’s exciting 2025-26 programme which was unveiled today. I’ll write about that in a Blog piece for the EMR soon.
For more on tonight’s music see David Kettle’s programme notes Programme Notes | Scottish Chamber Orchestra and his article on works written for double bass on the SCO website The double bass concerto | Scottish Chamber Orchestra
