BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
City Halls Glasgow
Thursday, November 5
Miranda Heggie
Four Stars
Opening with a Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra brought a crisp panache to Strauss’s theatrical tone poem, with rich, thick textures from the lower strings and almost alarmingly rousing brass flourishes.
Following on with a work from one of the most exciting composers working today, Unsuk Chin’s 2009 composition Šu was a moving and hypnotic aural journey through Chin’s unique sound worlds. Šu is a remarkable fusion of Eastern and Western traditions both ancient and modern, scored for full orchestra and solo sheng, a Chinese mouth organ dating back over 3000 years. This remarkable free-reed instrument is worlds away, both in appearance and sound from what most Scots would probably think of as a mouth-organ, its intricate mechanism of keys and pipes allowing for a vast array of timbres and dynamics, and even polyphony. Soloist Wu Wei had a captivating stage presence, as he moved to the rhythms of the piece almost like a jazz saxophonist. The addition of an off-stage string sextet from the balcony added to the immersive nature of the music, as the orchestra lent an organic sounding quality as Chin’s mesmerising harmonies gently expanded and contracted.
Schuman’s second symphony was a deep wash of colour, and the composer’s somewhat unstable mental state during much of his writing was made evident by the orchestra’s emphatic portrayal of the work. Under the clear beat of conductor Markus Stenz, the second ‘scherzo’ movement had a light-hearted frivolity, but one that was underpinned by darker shades, with driven accelerandos being particularly effective at depicting Schuman’s anxious frame of mind. His journey out of this depressive state was wonderfully displayed in the final ‘allegro’ movement, as Stenz brought the symphony to a triumphant conclusion, brimming with positivity!
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