Music
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
City Halls, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
four stars
ALTHOUGH Robin Ticciati’s season-long paralleling of the music of Dvorak with that of Bach did not materialise, this concert still made considerable sense as a stand-alone demonstration of the musical breadth of the relationship he has built with the SCO over the past nine years. The Orchestral Suite No.4 is not Bach at his most accessible, but, with half of the small ensemble standing, it was a fine precursor to Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, which is written for a small string orchestra to accompany the soloist, principal clarinet Maximiliano Martin.
After the bracing Bach, the opening of the Copland seemed a little slushy, but it swiftly perks up with plenty of rhythmic jazzy energy, as you would expect for a work commissioned by the king of swing clarinet, Benny Goodman. In Martin’s hands the concerto did not sound in the least dated, although it is a work very much of its time (1950) and the influences around then, in the orchestral world as well as the dance hall.
It was after the interval, however, that it became clear what the SCO loses – and will need to replace – with Ticciati’s departure. The larger orchestra, with 40 string players, required for Dvorak’s New World Symphony still had the sparkling clarity of narrative line through opening movement that the conductor brings to everything he directs. There was a surprisingly corrugated, uneven moment at the start of the Largo, before the entry of Tom Davey’s cor anglais with that famous melody, but the movement ended captivatingly with one of Ticciati’s distinctive heart-stopping interpretive pauses, setting up a beautifully shaped dramatic journey to the finale.
With even the choir stalls well-filled, Ticciati’s final season concert as principal conductor was an occasion to remember, and importantly there were a great many young people in the audience to treasure that memory in the years beyond the orchestra’s faithful subscribers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here