Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Felix Yaniewicz and the Scottish Enlightenment

City Halls, Glasgow - 9/12/22

The warm acoustic of Glasgow’s City Halls on the evening of 8th December provided the venue for a third and final outing of yet another imaginative, entertaining and informative programme from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  The colourful figure of Polish-Lithuanian virtuoso violinist / composer / impresario Felix Yaniewicz, who founded the historic first “Edinburgh Festival” in the early 19th century, provided Irish historical performance expert and our conductor/harpsichordist for the evening, Peter Whelan, with the focus for imagining a programme to emulate those enjoyed by Edinburgh audiences at that time.  The programme as originally devised was to have included a violin concerto by Yaniewicz with Colin Scobie as soloist, but when he became unavailable at the last minute, Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught stepped in with some concert works of the same period.  This was, as I shall reveal, no privation. 

The evening’s music was bracketed by Turkish percussion, in the form of opening with Mozart’s overture to what we used to call ‘Il Seraglio’ and closing with Haydn’s Symphony No.100 in G, nicknamed the ‘Military’.  Mozart’s delightful ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ closed the first half.  The rest of the programme comprised lesser known, though just as delightful, pieces, all receiving SCO’s unique brand of chamber music-making with period instruments.  I regret to record that the performance was very sparsely attended, though this was partially offset by the small audience being receptive, enthusiastic and appreciative. 

The Mozart overture was as brisk and whimsical as ever, with a furtive melancholy middle section, and Peter Whelan’s tempi perfectly supported the drama, getting the evening off to a genial start. 

This was my first time hearing Tara Erraught live and it is an experience I long to repeat as soon as possible.  Two songs, the concert aria ‘Caro mio ben’, most probably by well-travelled Neapolitan Tommaso Giordani, onetime teacher of John Field in Dublin, followed by Yaniewicz’ s ‘Go Youth Belov’d’, both songs of love and loss, were beautifully delivered, the former with Handelian melodic grace, the latter with Haydnesque elegance.  So many features of excellence are worthy of mention: flawless clarity of diction in Italian and English, exquisite shaping of phrases and even a single note in a perfectly judged fermata, fabulous dynamic range and, with the chamber music sensitivity of the SCO, perfect balance – all these were in evidence in this first appearance on stage.  Happily, there was more to come. 

Next up was the Overture in C, Op.1 No.2, by the 6th Earl of Kellie, Thomas Erskine, whose love of and prowess in music were reputedly surpassed only by those of alcohol.  The (very sober) Jamie Erskine, 14th Earl of Mar and 16th of Kellie, lives just down the road from me in Hilton Farm on the edge of Alloa. The former (of course) studied with Johann Stamitz in Mannheim and picked up the mannerisms of orchestral performance for which the town’s celebrated orchestra had become famous, notably the ‘Mannheim Steamroller’, a thrilling orchestral crescendo.  The three movements sound like a truncated early Haydn symphony and were equally delightful. 

Tara closed the first half of the programme with a spirited rendition of 16-year old Mozart’s very beautiful solo motet ‘Exsultate, jubilate’.  Originally written for the castrato Rauzzini to be performed in a church, Mozart clearly started with the best of sacred music intentions, but before long abandons the restraint and lets rip with operatic exhibitionism.  The result is a piece that is glorious to hear and, with the right singer, to perform.  Tara Erraught is most definitely the right bel canto singer.  Wow! 

Mozart’s reworking of Handel’s overture to his musical ode ‘Alexander’s Feast’, with added flutes, bassoons and horns, got the second half of the concert off to a rousing start, with a slow introduction, a brisk fugato and a concluding minuet.  The SCO ensemble sound when playing period instruments is always pretty special, and it was again. 

Two more songs from Tara, both rococo settings of Scottish traditional music, were up next.  Giordani’s ‘Queen Mary’s Lamentation’, conveying the captive Queen of Scots’ longing for freedom, was followed by J. C. Bach’s setting of ‘The Broom of Cowdenknowes’, a Borders ballad in which a shepherdess muses wistfully on happier bygone times with her lover.  Both were exquisitely performed. 

I’ve always had a soft spot for Haydn’s Symphony No.100, even before playing it in the second violins of the Festival Orchestra of Abu Dhabi, of which I was a founder member, in March 1994, our second concert.  The ‘Military’ nickname refers mainly to the slow movement, where the inclusion of clarinets, triangle, cymbals and bass drum and a vaguely oriental melody allow Haydn to create the comic illusion of a Turkish Janissary band on parade.  Just as they appear to be receding into the distance, trumpets sound the charge.  But then, with a wink from Haydn, they coyly resume their ceremonial march.  The symphony is good-natured fun from start to finish, for audience and performers alike.  So it was in the City Halls. The SCO and Peter Whelan took us with them on a very pleasurable musical journey. 

One final delight remained.  Returning to the stage while the prolonged applause rang in the auditorium, Tara gave us a super encore: Cherubino’s hormonal aria ‘Voi, che sapete’ from Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’.  Magical.  I cannot wait to hear her live again.