SCO/Christophers, City Hall, Glasgow
Michael Tumelty
Four Stars
ULTIMATELY, the SCO's performance of Haydn's oratorio, The Creation, conducted by Harry Christophers on Friday night, and the closing concert of the SCO's season, was all that it should have been, with scorchingly-immediate and direct singing from that magnificent SCO Chorus which, presumably through the forensic textual and tonal preparation with chorus director Gregory Batsleer, had the music and the text by the throat, and seemed to secure every ounce of potential impact and nuance from the score. And on top of that, I cannot imagine a more-winning combination of soloists than soprano Sophie Bevan, for whose glorious singing the term "luxuriously radiant" is reserved, tenor Andrew Staples, more business-like in his approach, and, above all, baritone Matthew Brook, whose palpable sense of engagement and sheer fun in what he was doing gave so much to the characterisation of the music.
It was a performance that, once it was up and running, felt as though it was powering along under its own steam, catching more and more of Haydn's stupendous originality of invention as it went, with all the fantastic evocations of the natural world, from the dazzling sunrise and the spellbinding moonlight, to Haydn's bustling, bristling aviary, all the wonderful beasts and the sheer glory of human life, with all these phenomena whizzing by, as fresh as a bracing breeze and with a turnover that was almost filmic in its progression and momentum.
My one reservation is that Christophers laboured the SCO in the introduction, with every orchestral stroke a bit over-weighted, late and not quite the SCO's usual incisive delivery. Still, once it was on its feet, it was away.
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 hereComments are closed on this article