Festival Music
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Usher Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
The self-regarding chump who bellowed "Bravo" before the final notes of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis had had any opportunity to fade away, received the most condemning remonstrative answer from a packed Usher Hall on Saturday night as everyone else took their cue from conductor Robin Ticciati's frozen back and sat on their hands for 30 seconds before giving the performance the respectful ovation it deserved.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, having produced fine performances of early French music and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for conductors John Butt and Sir Andrew Davis in the Festival's first week are at full tilt in the 2015 programme's closing days with performances at The Hub (Wave Moments), Usher Hall, Queen's Hall (Sunday's Family Concert), and the Ross Bandstand (tomorrow's first Monday night Fireworks Concert). The musicians' appearance with their Principal Conductor also teamed them for the first and only time this year with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, celebrating their 50th anniversary.
This was the choir's last hurrah of that jubilee year, bookending the superb Harmonium Project three weeks ago, and I do not recall having heard it in better voice. From the impressively crisp opening bars onwards, the internal balance of the voice sections was superb and the sheer power the chorus displayed when required was awesome. Perhaps the men could be a touch abrasive in tone at full stretch, but the quieter passages were masterpieces of control, and the tenors exemplary in the piano section of the Credo.
It was presumably an inspiration to the four soloists, with the rich-toned mezzo Gerhild Romberger a more than fine substitute for Alice Coote, whose ensemble work was another highlight.
Plaudits all round, except for the silly man in the stalls.
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