RSNO/Mauceri
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Keith Bruce
four stars
HOLLYWOOD composer Danny Elfman’s long weekend in Scotland did not begin well. He stopped and re-started the UK premiere of his Violin Concerto, Eleven Eleven, performed by the soloist for whom it was written, the elfin, highly mobile Sandy Cameron, and the orchestra that recorded it, the RSNO, because of problems with the amplification, and the difficulty remained unresolved although Cameron, conductor John Mauceri and the rest of the performers carried on as if nothing was amiss.
Truth to tell, the microphones on stage were more hindrance than help. When the one on Cameron’s 18th century instrument was supplemented by another on a stand, it only illustrated why active performers like Rod Stewart and Freddie Mercury found individual alternatives to remaining on one spot, and the solo singers in this Gala of Elfman music, soprano Amy Higgins and boy treble Alistair Hillis, both had the vocal chops to require theirs as little as the RSNO Chorus did.
The distraction of technical difficulties aside, the music went a long way to justifying Mauceri’s extravagant boasts of the composer’s talent. The concerto is a movement too long, both in terms of its structure and duration, but the slow movement has a lovely operatic beginning and there is something glorious about the wryly reverential scampering opening to the finale. In Cameron it has an advocate whose unique style may make performances by other violinists a considerable challenge, however.
The programme’s opening song, I Forget from Serenada Schizophrana, featuring Higgins and the women of the chorus, demonstrated that Elfman’s concert music has a history, while the second half was given over entirely to his soundtrack work for director Tim Burton. With a return appearance from Cameron and much cooing and ah-ing from the RSNO Chorus ladies, Edward Scissorhands was probably the most popular piece, although young Hillis was loudly appreciated for his contribution to Alice in Wonderland, but the Batman suite was arguably the most interesting music, with the orchestra’s second fiddles out of their seats at the start of its steam-punk waltz. But as far as inventive orchestration goes, and for all the diversity of instrumentation on stage, the opening bars of the encore performance of the theme to The Simpsons take some beating.
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