Music
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Perth Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
OF the many evocations of dawn and the diurnal progress of the sun in Western classical music, it is surprising that Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture is not played more often, at least round these parts. From its low strings and horn beginning, through a masterly build-up to a climactic evocation of light on a landscape, with beautiful writing for the winds, before it comes full-circle to the instrumentation of the start, it is a singularly lovely piece of work.
It is those specific ingredients that make it the ideal piece to preface the Third Symphony of Jean Sibelius, which also begins on the low strings, gives the slow movement melodies to the winds and features a parallel prominent role for the viola section in the run up to a climactic finale of building intensity. There are other elements to enjoy in the symphony, of course, such as its playful approach to triple time and references to the music of earlier eras, and conductor Enrique Mazzola made sure they were all given their moment in the sun as well.
The lightness of touch he demonstrated in the first half was rather less in evidence on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, but fortunately soloist Vilde Frang was on hand to bring her personality to bear, after an opening that was perhaps not actually that slow, but seemed very deliberate and prematurely portentous.
Frang’s latest recording, out this month, is of Bartok and Enescu, and the Beethoven is a work she deliberately set aside for some years, but she was in utter command of its structure here, even if – in the composer’s rule-breaking way – it is a while before the soloist makes a musical entrance. The Norwegian violinist swept very casually on and off the stage but had the precise measure of the acoustic of the hall in her dynamic and exciting performance. The cadenzas flowed beautifully from her conversation with the orchestra, and the playfulness of the concerto’s last few bars have rarely sounded so perfectly poised.
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