Music

Hebrides Ensemble and Psappha

Queens Hall, Edinburgh

Hazel Rowland

3 Stars

There was a strong focus on contemporary music in last night’s concert by Hebrides Ensemble and Psappha, in which the two groups joined together for a celebration of both their 25th anniversaries. The premier of Panopticon by David Fennessy made for a mesmerising start. Scored for string sextet and cimbalom (a Hungarian instrument played by striking its strings with beaters), Fennessy’s work initially established a constant pulse, which was passed from the cimbalom to the rigorously strumming and plucking strings. This could have become repetitive, but Fennessy is alert to when dramatic change is required. A striking moment occurred when the constant beat stopped, leaving only the residue of the cimbalom’s sound.

Tim Williams, Psappha’s artistic director, created a film to accompany their performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ string sextet, The Last Island, which portrays two small islands near the composer’s Orkney home. The film was distracting, however, giving the music specific visual representations when it should be left to the listener’s imagination. Hebrides and Psappha were nevertheless dedicated players, expertly altering between eerie stillness, frantic urgency and melodic sweetness.

This tampering of Davies’ music remained a theme. Rather than allowing Farewell to Stromness to speak for itself, David Horne’s newly commissioned arrangement for string ensemble and cimbalom distorted the original. Horne could not resist using the full spectrum of sounds on offer, eliminating the simplicity that made the original so beautiful. The ensemble were also let lose in Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), capturing the piece’s wild desperation. They nevertheless had trouble shaking off this intensity in more reflective moments. Sometimes, there were too many competing voices, when playing as a unified whole would have provided greater clarity.