Scottish Chamber Orchestra
City Halls, Glasgow
Friday 6th November
Five stars
Miranda Heggie
With an exciting programme focusing on German romantic repertoire, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra was on tremendous form on Friday evening. Brahms’ Variations on a theme of Joseph Haydn had a robust depth and a beautiful rich, romantic timbre, but without losing any of the poise and refinement of Haydn’s original theme, his St Antoni Chorale. The orchestra, under principal guest conductor Emmanuel Krivine, managed to bring out a unique character to each of Brahms’ variations, with a nimble sprightliness in the 5th variation poco presto and a lusher, more grandiose sound in the 7th variation.
SCO Associate Artist, Scottish Mezzo Soprano Karen Cargill cast a spell over the audience with her exquisite portrayal of Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, a set of five songs composed to poetry by Wagner’s friend, muse and possible lover Matthilde Wesendonck. Cargill sang the opening song, Angel, with a celestial, peaceful quality, though not without a rich Wagnerian potency. The luscious dissonances in the 3rd song, In the Glasshouse were teased out by the strings with elasticity, giving an ethereal, almost spectral feel to the piece. Cargill is truly outstanding as she displayed a deep artistic wisdom, her singing at once tremendously powerful yet with a tender vulnerability as she expressed the protagonist’s painful longing.
The programme continued with another of Wagner’s non-operatic works, Siegfried Idyll, composed as a birthday gift for his wife Cosima. Despite being scored for smaller orchestral forces, the tone was no less rich, with the orchestra playing with incredibly tight synchronicity and a mature, developed sound.
Ending with Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ symphony, number 8 in B minor, Krivine explored the rhythmic nuances of the music with just enough subtlety to give a real magnetism and sense of intrigue to the piece, especially in the gentle syncopation in the first movement. The rapturous crescendos added an exhilarating drama to the piece, and the different moods explored in the layers of Schubert’s score gave the piece a shimmering depth of colour.
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