Music
SCO/Storgards
City Halls, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
Four stars
The marketing of this concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra occasioned a little jousting on social media between a former Herald colleague and a more recent acquaintance in music criticism, the question being whether Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony or the UK premiere of a new Viola Concerto by Canadian composer Cassandra Miller was the more significant event, and/or selling point.
It is not to avoid taking sides to observe that both of them turned out to be correct. This Tchaikovsky 5 sounded box fresh itself, and not solely because the composer’s work is repertoire the SCO rarely visited until recently. Much of that was down to Finnish conductor John Storgards, recently astutely signed as Chief Conductor by the BBC Philharmonic, and a man who draws intelligent and committed performances from every outfit he directs. He chose to use an arrangement of the symphony by Sheffield-based George Morton, whose clever reduction of the score was revelatory from the very deliberate statement of the “fate” motif by first clarinet Maximiliano Martin in the opening bars.
Some way distant from how we expect to hear the work, the balance between single winds (bassoon, flute and eventually horn especially) and the 30 strings was always effective, faithful to the composer’s orchestration but in a leaner form. The rhythmic interplay between the string sections was more noticeable and Storgards brought very particular phrasing to the third movement waltz.
Cassandra Miller’s “I cannot love without trembling” (a seductive title which resists concise explanation, if her own programme note is to be trusted) is as remarkable a sonic experience, but in a very different way. Written for virtuoso violist Lawrence Power, who was the soloist, it asks a huge amount of player and instrument - the complexity of the work’s inspiration reflected in the playing techniques it demands, harmonics and precision glissando featuring from the start. The music for strings and winds is characterised by long, sustained notes but with an ever-present pulse, and Storgards consistently emphasised stresses in the underscore.
Later there are dramatic entries by trumpets and horns before a piercing piccolo introduces an extended cadenza with tuned percussion and strummed violins. A truly remarkable and original work, if one that only the boldest of viola players will approach.
The concert had begun on the conductor’s home turf with Sibelius, and his late Tempest Suite No 2, made from the incidental music for a production of the Shakespeare play for an orchestra of SCO proportions. With a triple time dance after the initial scene-setting by strings and harp and before the weightier “Prospero” theme, the orchestration then develops in symphonic fashion. The piece had obviously been carefully selected to pre-figure the music that followed.
The concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on the evening of Wednesday, May 10.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here