Music
RSNO Christmas Concert
Perth Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
EVERYONE celebrates Christmas in their own way. Only half of the double basses in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra could muster the joie de vivre to put on a Santa hat for the second half at the first of five Yuletide performances across the country. Over at the Second Violins, on the other hand, the collective approach to the dressing-up was that a thing worth do-ing is worth overdoing.
Ever-inventive costuming is one thread linking this year’s Christmas Con-certs with the legacy of Christopher Bell, the RSNO Chorus-master previ-ously on the podium and an ebullient master of ceremonies. With his depar-ture to trans-Atlantic pastures new, another approach to this perennial fa-vourite was required. It comes in the shape of a lively conductor of huge choral experience in Matthew Hamilton, and presenter Jamie MacDougall, overcoming a seasonal lurgy to be a singing emcee.
The other common ingredients are the RSNO Chorus and the screening of the animation of Raymond Briggs’ story The Snowman with the orchestra playing Howard Blake’s music. Junior Chorus treble Cameron Davies sings Walking in the Air, and the film looked to be in a crisp new print, with much of its joy being in those moments not covered by MacDougall’s narration when the score reflects “reaction shots” and other colourful details silently visible above the musicians.
The senior Chorus’s music is quite a bold selection this year, culminating in the traditional, but obscure here, traditional Spanish dance-carol Esta No-che. Tavener’s The Lamb is a contemporary a cappella classic which begins very quietly, and although it worked in the acoustic of Perth might struggle in Dundee’s Caird and Edinburgh’s Usher Halls. Tom Cunningham’s For Unto Us A Child Is Born is also modern, utilising Handel’s phrasing of the text from Isaiah that Charles Jennens supplied for Messiah, but with a new mel-ody, leaving O Holy Night as the only familiar carol before the mass sing-along of The Twelve Days of Christmas (with actions) and Hark the Herald Sing.
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