SINCE the Scottish Bach Consort are normally associated with taking music to rural areas of Scotland, it was highly appropriate that their appearance in Glasgow should have been in the city's own village, the West End.
The concert, subtitled A Showcase of Young Musicians, and part of the newly inaugurated Glasgow West End Festival, drew an audience of around 100 to the handsome Gothic-style Kelvinside Hillhead Church.
If the selection of venue was good, pity about the choice of piano for Polina Chersonskaya in Mozart's piano concerto K414.
Perhaps it was felt that alongside such a small string orchestra a full-scale concert grand would have given too big a sound, but the tone of this instrument was brittle and dead.
No matter how bright Chersonskaya's touch, her playing was never going to be allowed to shine.
As it was, her dangerously slow tempo in the slow movement affected expression of its innate lyricism, and some of the faster passages were slurred and earthbound.
The ensemble playing here was not as focused as in the preceding Corelli Concerto Grosso or in Vivaldi's Four Seasons, where director John Doig gave the concerto part to four young performers, Jane Sidebottom, Alison Dixon, Feargus Hetherington, a precocious talent at only 16, and Louise Webster.
All played with a vigour and sensitivity appropriate to their abilities, but Louise Webster transcended the mere command of the material and articulated music pulsing with expression, creating a buzz with her orchestral partner that was a real physical thrill.
q Sponsored by Scotwork (Scotland).
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