Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Hidden Gems
The Queen’s Hall - 28/10/21
Tonight’s conductor is Peter Whelan, former Principal Bassoonist with the SCO. In his witty introduction to tonight’s music, he speaks enthusiastically of his interest in the music of Carl Phillippe Emmanuel Bach. Once very well known, his music is less often played now, and Whelan believes there are many “hidden gems” among his works. Mozart and Haydn were prolific composers, and so among their works there are still a number which don’t get many airings. The concert arias, sung tonight by Anna Dennis and written for the exceptional voice of Mozart’s sister-in-law Aloysia Weber, fall into this category. And Haydn’s Symphony no 102 was, Whelan relates, so enormously popular on its first performance in London, that the last movement was played again. During this encore, the audience left their seats to surround the players at the front of the hall – thus avoiding a potential catastrophe, when a chandelier crashed to the floor behind them!
We don’t anticipate any such disasters tonight as a fairly drookit audience settles to enjoy this spirited concert. The CPE Bach’s Symphony in F was one he wrote after he left the employ of Frederick the Great (an expert flautist) and felt able to work with more freedom. He was a pioneer in the use of wind instruments as an integral part of the ensemble rather than as decorative extras. Whelan’s back-row former colleagues have plenty to do here. The three movement work is played without a break. Two linked short motifs, one with dotted rhythms and the other with rapid runs up the scale are repeated in different keys. There are stops and starts, and changes of pace. In the slower quieter sections, the wind instruments predominate. It’s cheerful music which keeps the audience on its toes, we may think, until suddenly we find ourselves in the slow movement. This is more sparsely scored for two, or at most three lines of music at the same time. It’s austerely beautiful with lovely music for the lower strings. The bouncy finale features the brass as well as the upper winds.
The Symphony dates from 1774 – and all the music in the programme was written in a period of just over twenty years. CPE Bach’s music was innovative, but in some ways he still looked to baroque convention certainly in the use of the fortepiano as an orchestral instrument, with Whelan directing from the keyboard.
Less than 10 years later Mozart’s soundscape already sounds more modern. Soprano Anna Dennis sings two of the occasional works, known collectively as concert arias. The first is Vorrei spiegarvi, O Dio (Let me explain, Oh God), showpiece for the soprano voice, requested by Aloysia Weber as an “insertion aria” for her performances of the opera, ‘Il Curioso Indiscreto’ by Anfossi. Her voice, as this piece testifies, was remarkable in its range, and the aria prefigures some of Mozart’s equally challenging arias in his own operas – ‘Come scoglio’ in Cosi and ‘Non piu di fiori’ in ‘La Clemenza di Tito’. The first section is slower and quieter with accompaniment by pizzicato strings, solo oboe and other winds. Here the very high notes are floated, with Dennis using a lighter voice. Sitting only a few yards from her, I found it a real delight to hear such a distinctive voice so clearly. The more impassioned second section requires more of her middle range with the full strings and horns joining the accompaniment. Some dramatic leaps from the bottom of her voice to the top notes bring the work to a close. It’s probably true to say that the aria might be better known if it wasn’t so fiendishly difficult. Sometimes singers speak of Mozart as being balm for the voice – I suspect they weren’t thinking of this piece! Anna Dennis’s second song is ‘Nehmt meinen Dank’ (Let me give thanks), a tender song of farewell, written for Aloysia when she left her post at the Vienna’ National Singspiel to move to the Burgtheater. Whelan in his introduction said that this is a poignant song for musicians who must leave their familiar lives to travel in the course of their work. The bassoon predominates in the lilting accompaniment. In two verses the singer expresses her thanks to her fellow musicians and fans. The repetition of the word bleib (stay) acts as a kind of chorus. “Blieb ich” (if I could stay) is repeated in the first verse, and in the second, she reassures us that her heart will always stay with her listeners, “Bleibt immerdar mein Herz bei euch.”
The last piece tonight is Haydn’s Symphony No 102. It’s worth reflecting on the origins of this work too. Like CPE Bach, Haydn spent much of his life as a court composer: it provided guaranteed income but with restraints. Later in life he found more freedom, especially on his visits to England, to write in a way which pleased him, and also, to his delight, pleased his audiences too. This, his third-last symphony, is not as well known as others of this period but deserves to be. Even in the Largo opening there’s a sense of breadth and grandeur in the use of the timpani, and in the Vivace which follows, the full wind section, including trumpets, get a chance to shine. There are drums too in the slow movement which includes a duet for cello and oboe. The third movement is described by Whelan as a deconstructed minuet – he suggests Haydn had written loads by then and wanted a bit of variety. It’s sounds like an energetic rustic dance, perhaps more suited to Lydia Bennet than her better behaved sisters! The legato lines of the trio are pared back and restrained with a lovely melody for the woodwinds. The Presto last movement has been described as very fast and very loud. It is also witty, with a number of jokes and surprises, right up to the series of false endings. Unsurprisingly the SCO is greeted with enthusiastic applause. But we don’t risk an encore!
There’s more vocal music next week in the first of the SCO’s concerts this season to feature a twentieth century composer. Peter Rose and Elizabeth Atherton sing in Shostakovich’s Symphony No 14, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
