SCO’s Mozart Gala
Usher Hall, 3/10/24
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Maxim Emelyanychev conductor
SCO Chorus, Gregory Batsleer Chorus Director
Lucy Crowe soprano, Anna Dennis soprano, Thomas Walker tenor, Edward Grint bass baritone
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s ‘Mozart Gala’ features two large scale works from the 1780s, the Symphony No 38 in D K504 written in 1786 and the earlier Mass in C Minor K 427, composed in 1782 and 1783. In a decade in which Mozart made his home largely in Vienna, both works had their first performances elsewhere, the symphony in Prague and the mass in Salzburg.
Like a number of the audience, I’ve been watching BBC2’s series, ‘The Genius of Mozart’ from which two of the episodes have a bearing on tonight’s works. Mozart’s new opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ received a lukewarm reception from Viennese audiences at its first performances in May 1786, although I’d doubt that an audience so used to different new librettos and music would have taken umbrage at the servants gaining the upper hand, as BBC2 insists. (The wily underling has been a regular character in drama and opera for a very long time). But the Viennese audience regularly fell in and out of love with composers, and so Mozart was pleased to hear that the Prague performances of ‘Figaro’ were received with enthusiasm later in the year. He went to the city in January 1787, bringing with him the score of this Symphony No 38, not written specifically for the city but given its name ever since its first performance there.
Its grand opening and length mark it out as one of the new style of complex symphony which became popular in the 1780s. Maxim Emelyanychev sets a slow adagio tempo for the first section for full orchestra, and the development of the chords is majestic rather than earth-shattering. The strings under guest leader, Armenian/Canadian Eva Aronian, currently with Northern Sinfonia, are precise in the allegro section. Charles Mackerras says in his introduction to the SCO’s 2008 recording that this is the most intellectual movement of any of Mozart’s symphonies because of its many different contrapuntal variations of its three-part theme. The orchestra has eight woodwinds seated between the natural horns and the natural trumpets, while the double bass players stand at the back of the stage. Horns and timpani take a break during the second movement andante, which has an exploratory feeling with hesitations interrupting the smooth flow of the dance. It’s not until the boisterous third movement that Emelyanychev lets loose the orchestra’s full power, with dramatic effects which possibly foreshadow ‘Don Giovanni,’ the opera which Mozart wrote specifically for Prague later in 1787.
The fifty-four members of the SCO chorus take their places in three rows of the choir stalls behind the double basses, while the four soloists are also seated behind most of the orchestra on the left of the stage. Three trombones join the brass section on the left, Andrew Forbes plays the small organ and there’s now only one flute and one oboe.
Mozart’s ‘Mass in C Minor’ with its beautiful soprano arias was written in 1783 as a wedding present for his wife, the singer Constanza Weber, and Lucy Crowe, one of tonight’s two magnificent soprano soloists, spoke on ‘The Genius of Mozart’ about how the arias in this Mass were written for Constanze’s voice, with its wide register. It may also have represented, at least formally, and as a sop to his father, a restatement of his Catholic faith. Salzburg, rather than Vienna, was chosen for its first performance during the visit in which Mozart introduced his wife to his father, Leopold. Surprisingly, given its 50 minute length, the mass is unfinished: the Credo breaks off part-way through and there’s no Agnus Dei. On the other hand it’s Mozart’s only religious work comparable in scope and ambition to the Requiem and indicates his debt to the music of Bach and Handel.
Tonight Maxim Emelyanychev and Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer present a glowing performance of the ecstatic choruses with period brass accompaniment, the knottier reflective passages and above all the beautifully nuanced soprano solos with their more intimate accompaniment. After the sombre choral opening to the ‘Kyrie Eleison’, Lucy Crowe sings the lovely bright ‘Christe Eleison’. She moves over to sing this on the left of the platform where the double basses are standing – behind the rest of the orchestra and in front of the chorus. I’m initially cautious about this arrangement, having seen many fine singers failing to make themselves heard from that position. (I read recently that Galina Vishnevskya was furious to find out that her solos in the recording of Britten’s ‘War Requiem’ were to be sung from behind the orchestra.) However, tonight, the sound carries well for the solos and duets with every word of Lucy Crowe’s and Anna Dennis’s arias shining out.
The ‘Gloria’ which follows is in seven sections. The chorus’s splendid rejoicing in ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo’ with full orchestral accompaniment provides a stirring start and is immediately followed by Anna Dennis’s ‘Laudamus te’ a joyful and vigorous evocation of religious fervour, which she sings with consistent poise and control of high and low notes. Robin William’s oboe obbligato weaves around her voice impeccably, both performers ending on a trill. Terrific stuff.
Both sopranos make light work of their duet ‘Domine Deus’, another highlight, before the chorus tackle the heavier-duty rhythms in the difficult double chorus, matching the penitential words of ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi.’ Thomas Walker, tenor, joins the sopranos for an elaborate trio, in which the combined voices don’t seem to carry as well. Thomas Walker and Edward Grint, the bass-baritone, are both fine singers who tonight have the thankless task of taking part in ensembles with no opportunity for a solo.
The truncated ‘Credo’ follows. For many years this was the only part of the Mass in C that I knew well, thanks to its use over the opening credits of Alan Plater’s 1988 television version of Chris Mullin’s ‘A Very British Coup.’ Colin Davis’s version with larger forces used in the film works well, but so does tonight’s smaller ensemble, the insistent rhythm from the orchestra – rasping sounds from the natural horns – underlying the repeated expressions of belief. In these four minutes, Mozart surely persuaded his father of his sincerity! Lucy Crowe’s aria, the operatic ‘Et incarnatus est’, is a thing of wonder, telling of the beginning but not the end of Christ’s life on earth. Its accompaniment from organ, flute (André Cebrián), oboe (Robin Williams) and bassoon (Cerys Ambrose-Evans) is particularly effective because of the soloist’s closeness to the players.
The Mass’s concluding ‘Sanctus’ is a further triumph for the chorus with its repeated eight-part ‘Hosanna’ which brings the evening to a blazing close. Although the audience is smaller than for last week’s opening concert, it is clearly appreciative of tonight’s programme, and orchestra, chorus and soloists with Maxim Emelyanychev and Gregory Batsleer are given prolonged applause.
For further information about tonight’s concert see David Kettle’s programme notes and the article ‘Mozart and the Weber Sisters’, both online at www.sco.org.uk Next week in the Queen’s Hall, Maxim Emelyanychev conducts this year’s version of the popular ‘Baroque Inspirations.’ There are still some tickets left.
Finally did you know that the SCO and the SCO Chorus can be heard in the BBC2 Mozart series and in ‘Mozart in Turkey’, the 90 minute long film about ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’ filmed in Istanbul in 2000? See the Edinburgh Music Review Blog for further information.
