East Neuk Festival

Camerata Janiczek

The Bowhouse, by St Monans

Keith Bruce

Four stars

ONCE first violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and now a regular returnee to lead and direct the orchestra, Alexander Janiczek brought his brand new group to Fife for its debut concert, and it would not be unkind to suggest that to begin with few listeners would have mistaken them for a seasoned ensemble. With the low strings playing at the bottom of their range in this arrangement, Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue K546 is an odd little work from around the time of his last symphony which may be a challenge for more established partnerships to find a coherent balance, and it seemed a rather ragged beginning.

With three each of first and second violins, two violas and cellos, and bass, the group then added Jan Waterfield on harpsichord for a Handel Concerto Grosso and the more mannered and elegant composition seemed to suit them better, even competing with the very audible weather outside. If all a listener knew of Handel was the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, the closing Allegro would surely give away the identity of the composer of this work.

The ace up the sleeve for Camerata Janiczek’s first appearance, however, was the soloist for two Mozart Horn Concertos, numbers one and four, that completed the programme. Recently departed from his position as principal horn with the SCO, Alec Frank-Gemmill is one of the world’s finest exponents of the natural horn, finding ways of wrangling a vast range of tone colours as well as fantastical chromaticism from the basic valveless early instrument that the composer would have known. The finale of his last horn concerto is not only one of Mozart’s best known works, it is also an established challenge for solo horn players on a modern instrument. That Frank-Gemmill now regularly displays his astonishingly articulate way with its famous tune without any need of valves puts him in a class all of his own.