Baroque Inspirations 2024
Queen’s Hall, 10/10/1924
Scottish Chamber Orchestra Maxim Emelyanychev conductor
Stephanie Gonley violin, Marcus Barcham Stevens violin, Philip Higham cello
The Queen’s Hall stage is full to overflowing with forty-seven Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians: timpani and three percussionists (with instruments tantalisingly hidden) are on the extension to the right; in the back row four horns are on the left and two trumpets, tuba and trombone on the right, with eight woodwinds between them; and tonight’s configuration of double basses has Nikita Naumov keeping the horns company on the left and Jamie Kenny with the brass on the left. In front are twenty four strings.
Maxim Emelyanychev’s harpsichord is in the middle of the stage. He tells us that in Bach’s or Mozart’s time, audiences were not able to hear music from past centuries – not till Mendelssohn rediscovered Bach in the 19th century was this considered acceptable. Now it’s possible for us to listen to music from five centuries. Maybe not tonight we think, but watch this space…
The annual Baroque Inspirations concerts are among the most popular in the SCO’s season, as the orchestra explores music from that era and more recent works inspired by it. Anyone new to the format who fears a strict academic exercise is swiftly reassured that these concerts are great fun. It is entertainment, which is based on thoroughly professional preparation and presentation, which for the audience begins with David Kettle’s programme notes, meticulously researched and written with wit and lucidity. So we know that Poulenc’s ‘Concerto Champêtre’ for harpsichord was commissioned by harpsichord virtuoso, Wanda Landowskaya, a great proponent of early music being played on original instruments. Poulenc said he wanted “to use the harpsichord in a manner that was French, modern and did not sound like a pastiche”. This concerto gives us a taste of both worlds with the first and third faster movements providing ample scope for a largish modern orchestra to collude, contrast and sometimes collide with the older solo instrument using its percussive powers to hold its own, and the central ‘Andante: Movement de Sicilienne’ in which the soloist alternates between developing a bitter-sweet melody and providing a flowing accompaniment when it’s taken up by the winds and strings. Poulenc, however, would never write anything as neatly formulaic as that, and after the relatively solemn opening with discordant keyboard response, there rapidly follows a loud dance for full orchestra– an ecossaise perhaps - and shortly afterwards a not too serious brassy toytown band. No musical idea is allowed to linger long, and the soloist waits to take his turn, not competing with the orchestra. Maxim Emelyanychev sometimes conducts from the keyboard, but noticeably the orchestra look to Stephanie Gonley, back in the leader’s chair tonight, for direction at the very precise baroque-style chords at the end of the first two movements. The ‘Finale: Presto très gai’ demands and gets much harpsichord virtuosity, and the percussionists eventually reveal their bags of tricks, with heavy-duty drumming, and perky xylophone playing towards the end. Never a dull moment.
As a palette cleanser, Maxim Emelyanychev provides a reflective few moments on the celeste, before conducting Stravinsky’s 1922 ‘Suite, Pulcinella’. Reluctantly persuaded by Diaghilev to write a ballet based on Pergolesi’s early 18th century music, Stravinsky soon became enamoured of the project, finding other music of the period which he wanted to use as the basis for his score. The eight-part suite from the complete ballet begins with the Sinfonia’s swaggering march, in which the natural horns, Stephanie Gonley’s solo gut-stringed violin and the percussive double basses create an authentic baroque atmosphere. It’s delightful and terrifically well played by the orchestra but Stravinsky’s explorations have only just begun and as the suite progresses, we reach movements where, as in a jazz concert, different musicians have their turn in the limelight. One movement features flutes, bassoons and horns, while the string players look on with obvious enjoyment, tapping their music stands appreciatively at the end. Next Duncan Wilson on trombone plays spectacular jazzy slides accompanied by double basses and cello. But there’s also a string quartet for the section principals, and a brass chorale with pizzicato strings to bring us back to the baroque era before the end Again it’s music which is never less than sparkling.
Maxim Emelyanychev has promised us “an interval surprise” and as in previous years, the bar area is crowded to welcome the conductor leading a small band of orchestral musicians, mostly woodwinds, plus a drummer on an antique instrument. Other SCO members, without instruments follow behind, and we soon realise that the surprise is baroque singing. Hymn sheets are circulated for the second number, and we do indeed have our five centuries old music in the form of Henry VIII’s composition, ‘Pastime with Good Company’ whose second verse concludes: “mirth and play are best of all.”
Back in the hall, with the tireless Maxim Emelyanychev on harpsichord and Alex McCartney Moore on lute providing the continuo, a reduced string section are on their feet for Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto in D Minor Op 3 No 11’ from ‘L’Estro Armonico’ (Harmonic Inspirations). This collection of twelve concertos were some of the first concertos ever published and were a financial and reputational success for Vivaldi. It’s a work for two violins, Stephanie Gonley and Marcus Barcham Stevens and cello, Philip Higham. The first and second violins share the honours in the first movement allegro with the cello entering later. The 12/8 time Sicilienne has a poignant theme for the first violin, with the decorated dotted-note melody played over the other violins, with the lower strings entering later. The three soloists each have their own musical lines in the more complex fast final movement. Scarcely 10 minutes long, the Vivaldi Concerto packs a fair punch in this energetically driven performance.
If Vivaldi’s concertos rarely overstay their welcome, that was never the reputation of his near-contemporary, Rameau, in what David Kettle calls his “virtually Wagnerian length” operas. Tonight’s suite from his final opera, ‘Les Boréades’, written in 1763 when he was nearly 80, distils its length into six movements mostly with dancing rhythms. More violinists come to stand beside the others at the front of the stage, woodwinds and horns return, and two percussionists take up position on the stage extension. The Boréades were the descendants of the North Wind, and Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the music in a breezy fashion, while drawing on the baroque sounds of his orchestra, the rasping horns, the energetic strings, and some original percussion. An old drum which can be struck on the side or on the front underpins the first set of contredanses, dying away at the end, and for the ‘Suite des vents’ a wind machine is used, which I can’t see but which sounds like the basic model where the harder the handle is turned, the louder the wind whistles. Many years ago on a theatre tour at Drottningholm, my son aged 11, was chosen to play their version, much to the envy of some of the adults present. (The machine also featured during ‘Cosi fan Tutte’ which we saw on stage later). In the midst of this jollity, the ‘Entrée d’Arboris’ is five minutes of serene perfection, featuring lute, flutes (André Cebrián and Marta Gomez) and bassoons (Cerys Ambrose-Evans and Alison Green) complementing a descending melody in the strings. The bassoonists, who were also on interval duty, deserve a special mention! The finale, more contredanses accompanied by tambourine and drums ends to tumultuous applause, until we’re silenced by the conductor re-emerging beating a drum to introduce a reprise of an earlier march. One of the percussionists brandishes a fearsome beribboned golden implement with jangles – a May Day prize for Albert Herring or a torture implement borne by the Grand Inquisitor’s henchman? I’ve left it too late to ask the SCO today – I’ll add the information later.
As always this is a concert to lighten the heart, and the audience leaves, many holding a sheet of music from 500 years ago, to reflect on another 21st century musical treat.
