Music

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

City Halls, Glasgow

Keith Bruce

four stars

TO the list of recent acclaimed deputising at concerts in Glasgow – conductor Elim Chan and pianist Louis Schwizgebel with the RSNO and pianist Steven Osborne with the BBC SSO – we must add soprano Rowan Pierce, who stepped in to replace the indisposed Elizabeth Watts for the SCO's Coronation Mass this weekend. From her CV of early opera roles, it is clear she arrived on the recommendation of conductor Richard Egarr, whose association with the orchestra is at a peak. The 23-year-old Mozart's compact Mass in C is an ensemble work, where the business of balance between orchestra, chorus, and the quartet of soloists was handled with relaxed aplomb by the conductor, but the soprano does have a star solo role in the closing Agnus Dei, and the beautiful pure tone Pierce had demonstrated up until then – and especially in the Credo – made that an anticipated climax to the evening.

An hour and a half previously, Egarr had barely reached the podium before he set the SCO off on a muscular account of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture that favoured a bit of welly over period austerity, which made the pizzicato finale all the more effective. From then on it was Mozart all the way, the conductor sometimes round the other side the music stand as he engaged with the players, many of whom also probably have as little need of the score to play the 36th "Linz" Symphony. The Magic Flute overture was particularly notable for the contrast between the crisp, brisk string playing and the legato phrasing demanded of the winds (and particularly Alison Mitchell's flute). Egarr may refuse to take a bow unless the whole orchestra joins in, but – Pierce's contribution not excepted – this was the conductor's night.