Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Summer Nights with Karen Cargill

The Queen’s Hall - 20/04/23 

Chloé van Soeterstède, conductor | Karen Cargill, mezzo soprano 

Regular attendees at SCO concerts have become so accustomed to unusual orchestra configurations that it may come as a surprise to see that tonight’s conductor, Chloé van Soeterstède , has opted for a conventional placement of violins across the front, violas, cellos and doubles basses from left to right behind them, with horns on the left and trumpets and timpani on the right flanking the woodwinds in the back row.  Also unexpected and disappointing is the lower than usual attendance, though there’s still an encouraging number of young people, including school students in the audience. 

In her introduction, van Soeterstède, unfazed by a non-functioning microphone, shows a talent for picking out the details that we’ll remember when listening to the music.  She praises the technical ability of the German composer, Emilie Meyer, who’s daring and confident in her first symphony.  She tells us that Berlioz’s mastery of orchestration is just as apparent in his song-cycle ‘Les nuits d’ete’ as in his colossal symphonic works, and marvels at Beethoven’s ability to cram so much into his shortest symphony. 

Emilie Meyer, 1812-1883, benefited financially after her father’s tragic early death and was able to make composing her career, unlike other women musicians of that period who had to fit it around other commitments. She was over thirty by the time she wrote her ‘Symphony No 1 in C minor’ the first of her eight symphonies.  The first movement has the marking allegro energico, and energy is certainly the key to this work.  Meyer creates a distinctive sound, often using the whole orchestra, which includes two horns, two trumpets and timpani.  She also enjoys placing the melody in the double basses.  Her melodies often veer in unexpected directions, and there’s a great deal of exciting invention. The second movement, marked adagio, begins with a lovely slow melody in which the woodwind dominate, but soon the rapid notes of the development suggest a quicker pace, maybe an adagio con moto with lots of vigorous activity for brass and timpani.   The scherzo and finale are playful and melodically interesting.  The work ends flamboyantly with a flute trill followed by a horn fanfare before a sequence of resounding chords!  Van Soeterstède and the orchestra tear into this rewarding score with obvious enjoyment.  This forgotten piece and composer certainly deserve further listening. 

Mezzo soprano, Karen Cargill, was in terrific voice as the Princess in ‘Suor Angelica,’ part of Scottish Opera’s recent ‘Il Trittico.’ Her performance tonight in very different music is equally as powerful. She has a score beside her, but rarely refers to it, and it’s always a pleasure to experience a singer fully communicating with her audience.  Berlioz’s score needs smaller forces than the two symphonies: we lose the brass and timpani and gain a harp.  There’s a lovely transparent quality in the playing with the conductor unafraid to pull the sound back. The quiet conclusion to the second song, with the singer’s voice accompanied only by the clarinet is particularly effective. Berlioz first set the six poems by Theophile Gautier for piano and voice in 1841, and didn’t complete the orchestration until 1856, probably the earliest example of an orchestral song cycle (see David Kettle’s programme notes  https://www.sco.org.uk/programmes-notes ) 

The songs are largely about loss and longing, though there’s an optimism in the first song ‘Villanelle’ which celebrates the arrival of spring, and again in the promise of a paradise in the last song ‘L’ile inconnue’ (the unknown isle), while the buoyancy of the lilting strings imitating the water in ‘Sur les lagunes’ (on the lagoon) suggest some acceptance of the loss. Cargill’s floating legato, her ability both to soar over the accompaniment and to pare her voice down, and her secure deeper notes, all give emphasis to the nuances of the text and the music.  This summer she is at Glyndebourne for more convent tragedy as Mere Marie in Poulenc’s ‘Dialogues Des Carmelites,’ which we will all be able to hear at its Proms performance on 7th August.  

The brass and timpani are back on stage, and Beethoven’s shortest Symphony is underway.  He referred to it as his “little symphony in F” as opposed to the big five-movement ‘Pastoral Symphony No 6 In F.’ In this work Beethoven replaces the traditional second slow movement with a scherzo, and David Kettle suggests in the programme that perhaps the whole symphony is an extended scherzo, a musical joke.  Certainly, there’s much that is good-humoured about it, and a readiness to surprise with unexpected changes of tempo and volume.  The first movement is punctuated by a five note rhythmical motif and includes hectic sections for full orchestra as well as quieter sections in which the woodwind predominate. (I heard someone at the SSO concert a few days ago asking the old question whether violinists deserve more money because they have more to do.  On the basis of tonight’s concert, the woodwind, which scarcely stop playing in the Meyer and the Beethoven, have a good basis for parity!). The cheerful scherzo is followed by a boisterous minuet which begins rather like the clumsy rustic dance from the Pastoral.  The more delicate central section featuring horns and oboes is maybe the nearest the symphony gets to a slow section.  The last movement provides a storming finale and again we hear the whole orchestra play together for much of the time.  In that respect it’s tempting to suggest that Meyer was influenced in her first symphony by Beethoven’s work, written in 1812, the year of her birth. 

Chloé van Soeterstède has made a very positive impression in her SCO debut and she’s warmly applauded by the audience and the players.  We look forward to a return visit.