Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Berlioz, Mozart and Ravel with Francois Leleux and Carolyn Sampson

Queen’s Hall - 01/02/24

Francois Leleux, conductor/oboe | Carolyn Sampson, soprano

This concert is the second of three matinee concerts which are part of the SCO’s main season this year. There’s a good buzz in the café from 1.15, and a decent attendance in the Stalls and Centre Circle, though there are a number of gaps at the sides of the circle. That’s a pity as this is an excellent varied programme featuring two regular and popular guests, conductor and oboist, Francois Leleux, and soprano, Carolyn Sampson.

Speaking before the concert, Leleux pays tribute to Hedley G Wright, who died last year at the age of 92 and to whom this concert is appropriately dedicated.  An oboist in his youth, he was a donor to many music organisations, and for many years sponsored the SCO’s Principal Oboe, Robin Williams. Oboes feature in the first work, Mozart’s ‘Symphony No 25 in G Minor.’ With twenty-four symphonies already under his belt, Mozart wrote this when he was only 17, and whether the dramatic outbursts in the music are a reflection of teenage angst or a desire to emulate the ‘Sturm und Drang’ Haydn Symphonies he’d recently heard, we’ll never know.  Four horns, two bassoons and two oboes make up the wind section. Although we might have expected louder forces plus timpani for the full stormy effect, the natural horns plus vigorous string playing - the violin front desk contains two baroque specialist, guest Leader, Pablo Hernan and Hew Daniel - provide plenty of power for the syncopations and sudden contrasts in the first movement’s allegro con brio. The oboes come into their own in the lyrical, less frantic middle section. Strings and bassoons play together for much of the andante second movement, with the oboes and the horns’ gentler notes joining in towards the end. The strident minuet is led by the horns - the natural instruments providing the requisite bounce and impudence – while the oboes shine as the pace and emotions cool in the trio. The last movement allegro is a shorter storm than the first, with plenty of dramatic changes in volume and mood. Mozart wrote this symphony quickly and it suggests the unity that comes from a burst of creativity.  Leleux’ s conducting brings that youthful freshness and propulsion to the orchestra.

Carolyn Sampson, elegant in white, joins an expanded orchestra for Berlioz’s dramatic cantata, ‘Herminie’.  With a libretto by Pierre-Ange Vieillard based on a medieval text by Tasso, this opera in miniature tells the story of a Muslim Princess of Antioch who falls in love with the Christian crusader, Tancredi. The 25 year-old Berlioz wrote it as his entry to the prestigious Prix de Rome music prize.  It didn’t win but being placed second helped to kick-start his career as a composer.  Flutes, clarinets, and trumpets are added to the wind section, Richard Cartlidge is on timpani and almost hidden at the side is Louise Lewis Goodwin playing cymbals. The work is in three sections, each consisting of a recitative and an aria.

The flutes and strings begin the distinctive melody of the longish introduction (later re-used as the main theme of the ‘Symphonie Fantastique’) which bursts briefly into a martial mood before the quiet recitative begins. Accompanied by string chords at the end of each line, and one short flute solo, Herminie sings of her unrequited love for Tancredi. As his enemy she should have hated him, but instead fell in love. The aria ‘Ah si de la tendresse’ (Ah if for the tenderness) is initially accompanied by the upper strings plus cello and bass pizzicato but as the reprise of the first section returns, the winds pick up the accompaniment as the aria becomes louder and faster. Leleux keeps the accompaniment buoyant, while Carolyn Sampson relishes the long expressive phrases. 

In the second recitative the heroine’s restraint is disturbed – she fears for Tancredi’ s life. The end of the recitative becomes more impassioned, until soprano and orchestra burst out with the aria, ‘Arrete, arrete, cher Tancrede’ (Stop, stop, dear Tancredi) and trumpets and timpani are heard for the first time as Herminie realises what war means. Sampson’s more dramatic delivery here allows her to ride over the louder orchestration. The tension grows in the third section, as she watches Tancredi’ s lover Clorinda put on armour to join in the battle.  Herminie’s inner turmoil is reflected in the orchestration as a trumpet adds a warlike hint to the recitative’s string accompaniment.

As she vows to fly to his aid, the sound of a full military band is unleashed, and cymbals join the trumpets, drums and horns. This is the dramatic climax of the piece, and soprano and orchestra maintain the momentum, until Berlioz intervenes with a Prayer. Herminie prays to Tancredi’ s Christian God to save him, a tender moment accompanied by bassoons, flutes, clarinets and pizzicato strings. The chorus returns with full force, though briefly, before the cantata fades away to its conclusion. Dramatic cantatas are a rarity nowadays, possibly because melodrama is out of fashion, often receiving an ironic treatment in the theatre or opera house. Yet when melodrama is performed seriously, with such elegance and musicianship as this, it works exceedingly well.

After the interval, Leleux returns with his oboe to play and direct his own arrangement of four songs from ‘The Magic Flute.’  In his programme notes, David Kettle points out that transcriptions and arrangements of operatic arias became popular in the eighteenth century simply because people enjoyed hearing tunes which they knew well.  Leleux’ s arrangement for chamber orchestra with oboes and bassoons certainly fulfils that criterion, and does so with great charm and elan, turning the arias into a short four movement work.  The first and third movements are based on Papageno’s arias, and the oboe mimics the sounds not only of the voice but of the bird-catcher’s musical instruments.  In ‘Ein Vogelfanger bin ich ja’ the instrument is the panpipe, the refrain neatly captured in the high notes of the oboe, with some nice embellishment in the repeats, while in the later aria, Papageno’s magic bells with their complicated jangling are also neatly replicated, with further intricate ornamentation.  In contrast, Tamino’ s lovely aria in praise of Pamina’ s portrait, ‘Dies Bildnis,’ is played straight, with the lower notes of the oboe effectively reproducing the tenor voice. The work concludes by reminding us of the underlying sinister forces in the opera as Monostatos scurries around with evil intent. A delightful arrangement.

Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’ requires the largest orchestra of the afternoon, including harp, celeste, timpani and three percussionists.  Ravel’s orchestration of his original piano duets is a through-performed work in six short tableaux with linking interludes, in which percussive effects add to instrumental solos and ensembles to tell a colourful set of stories. Clarinets predominate in the first movement dance and are underpinned by harp (Eleanor Hudson) and staccato strings, while in ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ flutes and cor anglais provide the distinctive sound.  Alison Green picks up her contrabassoon to imitate the hero in the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ waltz.  With double bass also prominent, the dance gets faster until the harp announces the transformation, followed by a high violin solo, played by guest Leader, Pablo Hernan. The birds that ‘Tom Thumb’ encounters in the woods give Marta Santamaria on piccolo the limelight, before the ‘Empress of the Pagodas’ unleashes the full orientalism of the percussion, celeste, xylophone, gongs and various bells accompanying the eastern-style harmonies and intervals in the strings. A flute solo, and more perky piccolo and horns herald the quicker closing section.

Leleux’ s conducting provides a clear sense of the overall structure of the piece, while being attentive to Ravel’s colourful details.  In the applause afterwards he goes round the orchestra bringing individual players to their feet for an ovation, and then taps his watch to show that the two-hour concert has finished exactly on time!  And as we go out into the February sunshine, there’s agreement that these matinee concerts are a good idea, worth repeating.

The third Thursday Queen’s Hall matinee of the season is on Thursday 18th April, when Conductor Emeritus, Joseph Swenson, conducts ‘Northern Lights’, with music by Sibelius, Nielsen and Maxwell Davies.