Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Yeol Eum Son Plays Mozart
Usher Hall - 15/12/22
It’s the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s last concert before Christmas, and many of the gentlemen are wearing festive red ties. It’s in the Usher Hall and Yeol Eum Son, the young South Korean pianist, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 27 is the draw this evening, and the orchestra have taken advantage of the bigger acoustic to use their larger forces in the last work, Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony.
The conductor tonight is Andrew Manze, with whom the SCO have a long-standing relationship, and the first piece tonight is his choice, the Polish composer, Grazyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra written in 1949. This is a rare opportunity to catch a work by this composer, and her best-known work in her native country. It’s probably unknown to most of the audience here, and, as we hear in violinist, Gordon Bragg’s introduction, only one member of the orchestra has previously played it. Like many Russian and Eastern European composers of the 20th century with whose work we’re more familiar, Bacewicz had to steer a way through writing – and more importantly – having performed -work which she wanted to write, and what she felt would be acceptable to the authorities. Her early training was in Paris where she studied with Nadia Boulanger, and she wrote more modernist pieces initially. This work, written post-war after Poland became subject to Soviet rule, saw her music become more neo-classical, or as one commentator put it, “no-nonsense.” It also explores something of the Polish heritage in the rougher-edged sounds of folk melodies and dances. The three short movements are played by a full complement of the SCO strings. The lower sounds predominate in the opening Allegro, with heavy rhythmical repeated notes, soon developing a chorus of pizzicato upper strings. The Andante is quieter and slower, this time with rhythmic pizzicato in the bass, and grows into a more sensuous lush melody, the calmest part of the concerto. The viva builds to a furious climax with repeated percussive effects on the bass. Bacewicz has a distinctive voice, which I didn’t take to immediately. The restricted palette of the string band seemed constraining perhaps – although we heard a lot of string-only pieces which were far blander in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic! Certainly, she is a name I will look out for again.
Yeol Eum Son, now 36, has been winning major piano prizes since she was 18, and has played with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. Her discography indicates a preference for 19th and 20th century composers, with Chopin, an early favourite, while she seems to have come to Mozart relatively recently, with her first recording of Piano Concerto No 21 and Sonata No 10 in 2018. In these Instagram days, she’s had to stay very much aware of how she looks as well as what she sounds like. I can report that for tonight’s performance she wears a cream sleeveless jumpsuit, with Laboutin red-soled black patent stilettos.
Mozart’s Concerto No 27 in B flat, K 595, is his last piano concerto. Written in January 1791, the last year of his life, it’s always tempting to fall into the trap of looking for valedictory elements in the work – Gordon Bragg in his introduction refers to it as “autumnal”. Yet, as David Kettle in his programme notes, and others have pointed out, Mozart in 1791 was busy looking for new directions in his music – his works for the new-fangled basset-clarinet, for example, his reworking of two established operatic genres, opera seria and Singspiel in ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ and ‘The Magic Flute’, some of his best choral music in the Requiem. It’s only with hindsight that we look for signs of farewell from a man aged 39 and at the height of his powers. Concerto 27 is one of his best concertos and moves from a spirited opening with transparent orchestral textures plus superb solo keyboard playing through a moving slow movement in which time can seem to stand still into a splendidly witty and life-affirming conclusion.
So how does Yeol Eum Son match up? Very well indeed, of course. She has a secure grasp of technique and understands how difficult it is to get this apparently simple music under control. My wonderful piano teacher used to tell me,” You have to sweat to get these little notes sounding right.” The key is in the hours of preparation, and Yeol Eum Son has obviously done all of that. In the first movement the quiet, almost throw-away orchestral opening by Manze and the orchestra, highlights these lovely colours, and the pianist makes the most both of her solo passages and the call and response effect with the orchestra. Her lightness of touch in the second movement, with its quiet solo opening is breath-taking. The movement is paced perfectly, and although I’m always reluctant to use words like “poetic” about musical technique, I can understand why the word is used in so many of her reviews! This is the highlight of her performance and the entire concert. There is certainly no deterioration in her technique after that, but, for me, the last movement lacks the insouciance that the best performers bring to it. It should be witty and make us smile, but this performance lacks that flourish. Others may disagree, and when someone plays so well, it may seem picky to comment. Interestingly her encore, the first movement of Piano Sonata No 3 in C Major, which those of us in the lower reaches of Mozart musicianship sweated grimly over to little avail and which Yeol Eum Son has probably played to perfection since she was five, is much more relaxed, both energetic, and, yes, witty.
After the interval we have Dvorak’s Symphony No 7 in D Minor, a work which I know less well than I should. It requires the largest turnout of SCO players, this season I think, and I wondered whether it was worthwhile a chamber orchestra playing a work probably better suited to a full-scale symphony orchestra. I loved the five horns (great to see Harry Johnstone again!) and the four trombones placed on either end of the back row, and an over-heard remark at the end of the concert convinced me that, as often happens, the smaller orchestra lets you hear the details of brass and wind sound much more clearly.
The first movement Allegro Maestoso begins in Wagnerian fashion with quiet horns and continues as a mixture of hunting scene and forest whispers, with some lovely combined sounds from horns and flutes. A denser more mysterious sound pervades the end of the movement. The Poco Adagio second movement starts as an anthemic melody on the bassoons, and develops, again with horns and flutes, into a sweeping dance-like tune on the strings. This proves the precursor to the Scherzo, marked vivace, the movement I knew best. This manages to combine a polished, even frothy Viennese waltz with some very turbulent tempestuous music for trombones, horns, and timpani (Louise Lewis Goodwin almost hidden at the back of the orchestra). The finale, allegro starts with the mysteriousness of the first movement, with a short theme, somewhat reminiscent of ‘Bali Ha’i’ (but maybe only to those who’ve seen South Pacific recently). There are heavily rhythmical sections, but it steers away from the turbulence of the third movement into unexpected calmer waters and an upbeat conclusion.
Manze obviously enjoys working with the orchestra, with whom he has a good rapport, and in his understated way, has opened our ears to possibilities in well-known and less familiar music.
For details of forthcoming SCO events, see here.
