Kellie Consort
St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow
Kate Molleson
[three stars]
The Kellie Consort arrives on the scene with the irrefutable if not entirely sexy epithet of "Scotland’s only pre-professional baroque ensemble". Imagine an under-25s version of the Dunedin Consort with stabilisers still on. Its director, Tom Wilkinson, is a PhD student of Dunedin’s John Butt and a diligent, sensitive musician with the kind of energetic enthusiasm that makes things happen. At St Andrew’s, where he is university organist, he has injected new clout into the Chapel Choir by delving into archive repertoire and pursuing a self-run record label.
Now with the Kellie Consort (the name refers to the 18th century Scottish composer Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kellie) Wilkinson wants to provide a platform for young Scottish musicians still getting to know period instruments and trying their voices out on the subtleties of baroque style. It’s a great endeavour even if details have yet to be fine-tuned.
The inaugural programme opened and closed with works written in 1707 when their respective composers were both 22 — Bach’s uncompromisingly solemn cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden and Handel’s boisterous Dixit Dominus — and also featured the gorgeously lush, shapely instrumental music from Rameau’s opera Dardanus. They were ambitious choices for a small and fairly timid ensemble trying to find its feet in a big echoey church acoustic. Poised, silvery solos from violinist Hannah Padmore stood out, as did lyrical alto lines from Judy Brown and the strong bass of James Corrigan. But generally the ensemble needs to risk more charisma, more urgency, more fun. Sure, good diction and tuning are important (both were by-and-large decent) but only real colour, grit and charisma will lift this music off the page.
[ENDS]
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