Kammerorchester Basel
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 20/08/2024
Julia Schröder, Director, Seong-Jin Cho (replacing Hélène Grimaud), Piano
Nicola Benedetti’s vision for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is one of unification, which speaks to the ‘importance of collective experiences to bind us closer together’. But like so many mission statements before it, this amiable mantra could quickly be rendered a fatuous programme-filler if not for the artists who embody its principles and demonstrate the requisite care and charisma necessary to transform abstract promises into actualities of performance. Step forward Kammerorchester Basel, who, in this writer’s view, offered a stellar concert of some of the finest playing heard this season – and, dare I say it, of festivals past.
Conductor-less and directed by its Concertmaster, Julia Schröder, the Kammerorchester Basel looked small in what felt like a particularly large Usher Hall given the discouraging number of vacant seats in the Grand and Upper Circles for a concert of this calibre. Nevertheless, any brooding concerns about this modest band’s ability to fill the mammoth room were quickly dissuaded by their jovial reading of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s ‘Overture in C’.
Directive but never distracting nor demanding, Schröder’s stewardship coaxed a buoyant and balanced sound from the orchestra, and her endearing style saw her turn to the audience at times, beaming as Hensel shifted harmonic and rhythmic gears. She was a galvanising force in the concert and an enjoys an expansive career that includes baroque music, jazz and tango, which doubtless informing her alluring informality in this ‘formal’ repertoire. Where performances of Romantic overtures can descend quickly into shouting and offer volume levels seemingly intent on strimming the paint from the walls, these players’ sensitive calibration to the possibilities afforded by the hall meant that the tuttis were rounded and warm, and never overbearing, and softer stretches were nourished to allow the intricate figurations space to breathe and settle. Throughout the concert, there was a refreshing and unapologetic indulgence: here was an orchestra savouring each phrase, who were in absolutely no rush.
Seong-Jin Cho replaced an indisposed Hélène Grimaud with 36 hours’ notice and delivered a delicious rendition of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. Cho, who rose to prominence following his victory at the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition aged 21, was doubtless cognisant of the large shoes he was mandated to fill – but fill them he did, and then some. The tranquil opening was handled with a tenderness and ease which rubbished any caution which may well have arisen from the veritable last-second marriage of soloist and orchestra. Instead, Cho and the orchestra moved through the first movement’s serene introduction, its infamous and (at the time) radical harmonic substitutions, and the contemplative recapitulation in sublime style. The programme booklet – quite annoyingly in my opinion – reminded the audience to adhere to ‘traditional’ concert practice and not clap between movements. So, clap we didn’t after the first – but clap we should have.
The second movement was tragic and tranquil in equal measure, and the audience didn’t breathe. Cho truly is a ‘choral’ pianist, singing each melody and inner voicing with a seamless sotto voce. The finale saw him disrupt his own carefully consecrated calm and embody somewhat of the cheeky and unpredictable, but never tasteless, rockstar. Most impressive were Cho and Schröder’s interactions, each conducting the other at certain transitory moments – and the finely-tuned (pun intended) orchestral organism reacted in support and encouragement to the pianist’s frisky spontaneity. The long pent-up applause was finally released in a uniquely rowdy standing ovation for a concerto soloist, permitting Cho a total of seven bows and a Haydn encore at no extra cost: though the audience’s reaction suggested they would have readily and speedily seen to any additional dues.
Emilie Mayer’s kaleidoscopic Symphony in F Minor filled the second half with previously unheard orchestral colours. Julia Schröder merits special recognition (again) for her management of the work and, in addition to her idiomatic sense of line and phrase, ensured the rhythmic ensemble of the orchestra was precise but never bland in passages many conductors would struggle to deliver unanimously. Mayer’s music demands a pliant sense of pulse which Schröder and the orchestra expressed fluently, and their conjuring of the distinctive characters in each movement gave an operatic aura to the mighty symphony.
All of this may well make for a boring review given my unequivocal commendation of an orchestra who were exuberant and exceptional. But the performance served as an exciting, heartening and hopeful reminder of the positive spirit which the Edinburgh International Festival seeks to spread. The Kammerorchester Basel graced our city with a performance characterised by effusive sensitivity, stimulation, and a healthy amount of spontaneity. As a conductor, I have never been more pleased to feel an inherent redundancy in much of my own work from this conductor-less band. And, as a musician, never more heartened to have had the opportunity to hear players like them in a town like this.
Photo Credit: Maxime Ragni
