Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Beethoven’s Sixth
Usher Hall - 28/04/22
This was my first SCO concert since the month before lockdown in 2020, and what a pleasure it was. By a bizarre coincidence, the work I reviewed then, one of my very first for EMR, was Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, which was also the featured work tonight!
There was a palpable sense of excitement in the Usher Hall for this concert of fabulous music from Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven, and the place was packed. The Stalls and Grand Circle were pretty full, and there was a fantastic turnout of young people. The usual grey and bald heads which occupy the majority of seats on a Friday night for the RSNO were fighting a battle for supremacy with darker and more fulsome barnets, and it was a joy to see so many students in the audience. I asked a few of them what they thought, and they were full of praise for the music and the orchestra. The SCO offers £6 seats for students and those under 26, and this seems to have borne luxuriant fruit. I suppose Thursday is a better night for students, as Friday is traditionally party night, but I was delighted to see so many young people there, and obviously enjoying themselves. Perhaps the orchestras in general could reach out more to the student population. Edinburgh, after all, boasts three universities and several colleges. We need to get to the schools as well, not talking down to the pupils, but encouraging them to hear live classical music in all its wonderful glory!
I was also immensely pleased to see the SCO dress code, with everyone dressed in black, but smart casual rather than evening dress. It has always struck me that there is no need in 2022 for orchestral musicians to wear Edwardian formal dress to play in concerts, white tie and tails for men and long skirts and dresses with high heels for women. I seriously urge the RSNO to rethink their players’ dress code, as it is anachronistic these days and must put off the younger generation. I myself hate wearing white tie and tails for performance, and would rather be smart and comfortable when singing, rather than trussed up like a turkey.
The concert was conducted by the vivacious young Portuguese, Joana Carneiro, who introduced the concert in a very appealing manner, and proceeded to dominate the stage with her fluent, almost balletic, style of conducting. I wondered if I would ever describe a male conductor as balletic, and was worried that I was being unconsciously sexist, but I maintain that her style is unique and quite splendid. There was fire and strength in her technique as well as fluidity in her movement, and she was mesmerising to watch. A very clear beat helped too!
The concert started with Mozart’s Symphony No 32, a short work dating from 1779, when the composer was working for the wonderfully named Hieronymus Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. This was not one of Mozart’s happiest collaborations, but this short work is a delight, being more like an overture to a stage work than a symphony. It has all the features of symphonic form but in a miniature way, and all in the course of one unbroken movement. Joana Carneiro brought the full force of her dynamic style to bear on this slight piece, and it made for a very satisfying opening. Mozart unusually scored it for four horns, and we were treated to the sound of natural horns, which add a certain raspy texture to the music, reminiscent of hunting horns.
After the Mozart, we moved forward in time to the Second Piano Concerto of Frédéric Chopin, which confusingly was the first he wrote. Composed in 1830, when Chopin was just 20, and premiered by the composer in Warsaw, it was one of the first pieces to alert the world to his genius. With his complicated love-life, his famous virtuosity and his tragic early death, Chopin has become the symbol of Romantic Music, the doomed hero. This work announced the arrival of one of the first great virtuosi of the 19th century, and tonight’s performance was an occasion of great virtuoso playing. The young British pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, gave a fantastic account of this hugely difficult concerto, and his immaculate playing drew quite an ovation at the end. It was fascinating to see the flamboyance of Ms Carneiro paired with the almost static poise of Mr Grosvenor, who rather shambled on to the stage, as if slightly surprised to find himself there. There was no doubt whatsoever about his playing, as he proceeded to dominate the stage with his splendid virtuosity. Everything came from the arms and hands, as he sat straight-backed on his stool, hardly moving his body at all. The contrast with the liquid movements of the conductor could not have been more marked, but the combination worked well. There was a power in his playing that captured the attention from the beginning, but there was also a wonderful sense of poise and beauty in his touch. I was reminded of films of the great Arthur Rubinstein playing Chopin with the same lack of body movement but total command of the keyboard. I cannot praise this performance more highly. There is a wonderful film, on YouTube, of a conversation between Rubinstein (very old) and Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya, conducted in a sort of English, in which Rostropovich declares to Rubinstein that, compared with him, Slava and Galina are prince and princess, but he is the King, pronounced in Slava’s strong Russian accent, “The Kink”! Young Mr Grosvenor has a right royal future!
As an encore, he played a very beautiful gentle piece, a Chopin Nocturne, which contrasted well with the fireworks of the Concerto.
After the interval, we were reminded once again of the genius of Ludwig Van Beethoven, when the SCO and Joana Carneiro played his Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral. He started work on the symphony in 1802, and it was premiered in December 1808 at a famous four- hour concert, which also included the first performance of his Fifth Symphony, and several other works. It was famously under-rehearsed, in a freezing cold Theater an der Wien, but it must have been an astounding evening.
I was intrigued to hear it played by the Chamber Orchestra, with only four desks of first and second violins, and I must say it took a little while to adjust to the changed balance from a bigger symphony orchestra. I missed the sheer force of a bigger violin section, as you could almost hear individual sounds from the players, rather than the homogenous sound we are used to. It did allow a greater light to be cast on the woodwind, which was nice, but I would have liked a fuller tone. As in the Mozart, the brass instruments were natural, as were the timpani. Apparently, Louise Goodwin was playing on Potter timps in the Mozart and Beethoven. They too make a quite different sound to their modern counterparts. It’s interesting to see that the SCO can demonstrate a willingness to bridge the chasm between full period bands and a modern orchestra. Whereas the Dunedin Consort play only on period instruments, and at Baroque pitch (415 Hz), the SCO can adapt somewhat to modern early music practice, with natural brass and timpani but modern woodwind and strings (at 440 Hz).
Joana Carneiro gave a fine account of the Beethoven, fascinating to watch from behind, with her fluent gestures and rhythmic precision.
Each time I hear the Sixth, I am amazed at Beethoven’s invention and mastery of detail. This first attempt at a structured symphony with a story, in a most unusual five movements, is innovative in so many ways, and this performance brought out several aspects I had missed before. The bird calls in the second movement were suitably avian, and the storm swept over us like, well, a storm! I have always loved the way Beethoven ends the symphony, from the sun coming out, to the sun going down (no, not just in Fantasia. It’s in the music!) and one never tires of this miraculous score. I felt that Ms Carneiro slightly fell into the modern trap of break-neck speeds in Beethoven, especially in the third movement, when the oboe had to play at lightning speed, followed by the natural horn, which only just kept up. Bravo, by the way, to Principal Horn, Zoë Tweed, both for the playing and the blue hair, which added a dash of colour to the orchestral look. Bravo also to Principal Double Bass, Nikita Naumov, whose wonderfully dramatic style of playing demonstrated a delight in playing what Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis called the Bull Fiddle in ‘Some Like It Hot’. Nikita was great to watch!
All in all, this was a most satisfying concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. My joy at seeing so many younger audience members, as at the Sunday BBCSSO concert I attended recently, was only slightly marred by the understandable ignorance of many of them about concert etiquette. Perhaps an announcement could be made at the start to the effect that the audience doesn’t need to clap every time the music stops. It only takes one or two to start it but clapping after every movement or song becomes tedious. In my own recitals, I usually suggest restraining applause until the end of a group of songs. Could this be done at orchestral concerts with movements? Just a thought.
