SCO
SCO
City Halls, Glasgow
✶ ✶ ✶
IF you don't mind, I'm going to personalise this review a wee bit. On Friday night the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Oliver Knussen gave the world-premiere performance of a new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, a concert overture entitled Ebb Of Winter, written for the SCO in honour of its 40th birthday.
Max, as he is known, and the SCO go back a long way. But Max and I go back a long way too. He was my first major interviewee 30 years ago when I started work on The Herald, an experience I found absolutely terrifying. On Friday night, not having seen each other for some years, and with both of us having been seriously ill in the interim, we met again, after his fascinating pre-concert talk on the new work.
He said he hoped that Ebb Of Winter would be seen as a "mature" piece, perhaps less-abrasive than some of his works from the sixties. Well, it is, but without one ounce of compromise evident in its composition, or in its brilliant delivery by the SCO. You could take the piece any way you want: in the pictorial literalism of the music (the realisation of "slippery underfoot" the best I have ever heard) or the sun-kissed but freezing atmospheres throughout the piece, with its dazzling, radiantly spring-like major chord at the end.
But my own preference in this wee masterwork is the (by now and long since established) natural Scottish accent in the music that underpins its identity, and the dance-like figuration, lilt and momentum that propels the piece in its later stages. And, for me, the fact that Max's music is still dancing, which I said to the great man after the performance, is one of the most enduring qualities of his work.
Elsewhere in the concert, Peter Serkin's playing of Bartok's great Third Piano Concerto was a bit bookish and never got off the leash, while the SCO's account of Stravinsky's Symphony in C, though stunningly-accentuated and articulated, was a little heavy-footed.
A good concert, poorly attended.
MICHAEL TUMELTY
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 hereComments are closed on this article