Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Beethoven Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti
Usher Hall - 14/12/23
Nicola Benedetti, director/violin | Benjamin Marquise Gilmore, director/violin
The Usher Hall is full to bursting for Nicola Benedetti’s performance of Beethoven’s ‘Violin Concerto,’ the last Edinburgh concert of the year for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. All seats were booked a few days ago, and then the Organ Gallery seating went on sale, and now there’s scarcely a gap there either. There are lots of young people in the audience, including a five year-old in a Santa outfit in the stage seating, and a full turnout of SCO regulars too. Benedetti gives an astonishing performance, putting her own stamp on Beethoven’s masterpiece.
When the audience is waiting for the main event in the second half, programming the first part of the concert is tricky, and the SCO has decided on a ten-minute modern work for strings followed by a twenty-minute Mozart symphony. US composer, Jessie Montgomery, has supported Latin and African American musicians, and has incorporated elements from their musical traditions into her works. Her 2012 ‘Strum’ is written for string orchestra, and much of the piece, as the title suggests, requires the musicians to play pizzicato. Principal viola, Max Mandel, begins the work by holding his instrument like a guitar – a visible “strum.” Starting with the cellos, each section of the strings plays a theme, with the bow, while the rest of the orchestra plays a plucked accompaniment. It’s a pleasant work, beautifully played, which is listened to with rapt attention – but to me it seemed rather bland. Last week, Brian Bannatyne-Scott reviewed the RSNO Christmas Concert, and felt that the first half of the programme seemed ill-judged for a young audience waiting to hear the Nutcracker. I don’t think that would be an appropriate criticism of tonight’s programme, but I wonder if a bolder choice of opener might have appealed to newer audience members. Perhaps something by the composer in residence, Jay Capperauld?
Then my spirits rise with the arrival of the rest of the orchestra, including natural horns (George Strivens and Jamie Shield) and natural trumpets (Peter Franks and Shaun Harrold) for Mozart’s ‘Symphony No 34 in C Major.’ Written in 1780, it’s one of Mozart’s less familiar symphonies. I assumed it would be among the SCO/Mackerras recordings of the late symphonies, and that I would be humming along in no time. But it’s not, and there aren’t many YouTube versions to refer to. That said, the SCO’s rousing performance with these wonderful period instruments and Louise Lewis Goodwin on timpani beats any of the competition into a cocked hat. The first movement, marked allegro ma non troppo (not too fast), is rousing and tuneful, with Benjamin Marquise Gilmore, directing from the leader’s position, building up some effective long crescendos near the end. This is a three movement symphony, after Mozart apparently destroyed the minuet. The slow movement is admittedly not Mozart’s finest seven minutes, and I speculated whether he might have thrown the wrong bit in the bin. But we are soon back to the trumpets, drums and some rather nifty work for the oboists, Robin Williams and Katherine Bryer, in a rollicking allegro vivace which brings the first part of the concert to a triumphant close. Despite my misgivings about the Montgomery, any new members of the audience will, I hope, have been captivated by the SCO’s sound and energy in the Mozart.
After the interval, by 8.25, we’ve embarked on the main event. Nicola Benedetti is directing the Beethoven Violin Concert, as well as playing, and does this minimally with nods and discreet eye-contact but, with assistance from Benjamin Marquise Gilmore, entirely effectively. Unusually the timpanist begins the first movement with five taps on the drum, a rhythm picked up by the strings who accompany the clarinets, bassoons and horns as they set out the first theme before the soloist begins to play about four minutes in. As David Kettle points out in his programme notes here this opening rhythm, like the composer’s famous five note opening to his Fifth Symphony continues to reappear throughout the first movement. The taps, whether on timpani or other instruments recur, sometimes sounding like four short notes followed by a long note and underpinning both the solo and orchestral development of the theme. From her first notes, Benedetti puts her mark firmly on the piece: the long solo exposition is not elaborately showy but she isn’t afraid of restraint, with elegant and very beautiful playing in the passages where she can dwell on high notes. The movement culminates in a long cadenza, and after Louise Lewis Goodwin’s prominence in this movement, it seems entirely appropriate that she should accompany Benedetti towards the end with some extended rhythmical beats on the timpani. I learn later that this is Benedetti’s own cadenza, which is surely also a tribute to the composer’s use of the timpani. It’s one of many compelling moments in this performance.
After a string opening to the larghetto second movement, horns accompany the soloist. She plays almost continuously throughout this movement, with subdued strings or small groupings of other instruments, including clarinets and bassoons. Benedetti’s focus on the detail of her quiet playing commands the listeners’ attention, and there are several moving passages. The transition, without a pause to the rondo allegro third movement, is, as always, surprising, the soloist seeming to change tack in mid-phrase. Witty sections for violinist and woodwind (clarinets and a flute have joined the orchestra for the Beethoven) are interspersed with dynamic full orchestra playing of the theme, the natural horns and trumpets helping to imitate the early nineteenth century sound. Benedetti is required to play faster and with more virtuosity as the work progresses. The wistful introduction of a second theme, and a short punchy cadenza hold up the jollity only briefly and after a hinted false ending, the soloist heralds the brisk final chords. Timpanist Goodwin is the first to be acknowledged by Benedetti as the tumultuous applause begins
The large audience have had a wonderful evening, though young Santa has, I suspect, fallen asleep. Delighted conversations continue at the bus stop and on the crowded buses home.
