LAST night's concert served as the Scottish leg of a two-part series which premiered in London's Australia House on Thursday night. The BT's are now closely associated with the musical activities of the Royal Over-Seas League and these concerts showcased two recipients of ROSL awards.
Australian-born composer Nicholas Vines was the 1996 winner of the Bernard Shore Viola Composition award. Vines is currently studying at the University of Sydney but he was in Britain for these, the first two UK performances of The Underside Revealed, given by a characteristically flamboyant Philip Dukes.
A clever showpiece for viola, the work is premised on the instrument's poor reputation, proving that it is in fact well worthy of a share of the limelight. Vines employed the 1960s technique of spatial displacement whereby the soloist moves around the stage playing at one of three music stands. Drama then was the focal point of the piece, though there was some nice string writing, particularly in the slow middle section, lyrically voiced by viola over a gentle rocking accompaniment.
Cellist Liwei Qin was born in Shanghai, but later settled in Australia. Still in his early twenties he has a string of awards behind him and his captivating performance of Haydn's C Major Concerto suggests many more to follow. Seemingly effortless, the music danced off the fingerboard, both in the delicate passages of the outer movements and the uninterrupted flow of melody in the central Adagio.
The BT's played well for him and came into their own for wholesome accounts of Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.
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