Hebrides Ensemble/BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow

Arts Editor

Monday 4 June 2012

The well-filled Old Fruitmarket that greeted the Hebrides Ensemble for their contribution to the New Century season – Arnold Schoenberg's radical Sprechgesang cycle Pierrot Lunaire – might have astonished the composer 100 years ago, never mind the musicians and promoter here.

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Keith Bruce

With a beautiful projection of the lovestruck moon behind them, the instrumental sextet and soprano Lucy Shelton gave an accomplished account of the fiendishly tricky piece which, sadly, seemed quite out of place. The venue simply lacked the intimacy the piece requires and no matter how animated Shelton's delivery, and how startling the playing (that of cellist Will Conway and pianist Philip Moore particularly), the performance seemed too distant and uninvolving.

Its sound-world, however, did tee-up Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto, which was the climax of this brief season. A weird hybrid for piano and violin soloists and 13 winds, its fractured nature – reflecting its genesis in different planned pieces – is essential to its complex success. Nearing 90 years on, it is demanding to listen to (as well as play of course), but every time this audience member felt unsure of his ground some intricate writing for a combination of the winds or startling phrase from Ilya Gringolts (violin) or Nicolas Hodges (piano) appeared like a footstep or handhold – a little akin to making an ascent of a rock face (I imagine). The sonic invention of the last few bars is the reward, and the perfect culmination of what had been a remarkable two evenings. Webern's pre-Schoenberg Im Sommerwind and the surprisingly narrative Six Pieces, in the more practical 1928 revision, were carefully placed stepping stones on that journey.HHHH

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Hebrides Ensemble/BBC SSO, City Halls, Glasgow

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