Music

SCO/Richard Egarr

City Hall, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

four stars

SUPERFICIALLY it may have appeared an understated celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus – hardly a venerable age for an amateur choir, as chorusmaster Gregory Batsleer conceded in his programme note – but this concert was beautifully shaped and a fine showcase for the capabilities of the Herald Angel-winning ensemble.

That came in the second half of the concert, when the comparative rarity of Mendelssohn's Verlieh uns Frieden – almost a pop song as much as a hymn – was followed by the Magnificat by the composer to whom it was a sort of homage, Johann Sebastian Bach. Conductor Richard Egarr's instrumental first half mirrored it, by preceding Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony with Bach's Overture from Suite No.3, which he introduced as "Bach at his most joyful". With an extra string bass and Tony George playing early bass horn, the serpent, there was a precision about the instrumentation for the symphony that made the gorgeous orchestration of the second movement more apparent.

The same careful thought had gone into the staging of the Magnificat, with some of the soloists at the front of the stage but soprano Mhairi Lawson taking a place between choir and orchestra for her first appearance, and the trio, with mezzo Daniela Lehner and alto Susannah Bedford, a choral scholar from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, assembling in a similar location. Tenor Andrew Tortise and baritone completed the line-up in a beautifully detailed performance featuring lovely continuo and wind accompaniment from the players. Perhaps the men of the chorus lacked a little muscle in the finale, but this was a concert about precision rather than power.