Music
SCO Winds/RCS Stevenson Winds
RCS, Glasgow
Michael Tumelty
five stars
FRIDAY’S regular lunchtime concert in the Royal Conservatoire was an event far from the ordinary. It marked a new partnership for the conservatoire, which already has, or has had, a string of relationships with professional performing bodies, including the Scottish Ensemble. On Friday, for the first time, the students of the Stevenson Winds joined the stellar woodwind principals of the SCO in a concert performance. This was not the apprentices joining the masters, nor even just a side-by-side concert. This was a performance of one of the greatest pieces ever written: Mozart’s Gran Partita, or Serenade for 13 wind instruments, a long piece of seven movements, with no hiding places. The six SCO players and seven students, each to his/her own part, delivered a glorious, wonderfully-characterised performance from an indivisible ensemble.
The Serenade is a demanding piece in every respect. It is, I have always felt in my gut since I got to know it as a lad, perhaps the most perfect piece of music ever written. It is utterly flawless on every front, from conception to instrumentation, from texturing to colouring, from pacing to structuring. Across the widest range of styles from graceful elegance to dynamite animation, it has a broad palette of emotional states, from the heartbreak of the third movement with oboist Robin Williams’ aching solo, to the ensemble hilarity of the finale and the warm humour of Alison Green’s matchless timing on the contrabassoon. Natural horns blended effortlessly with valve horns, and the gentle murmuring of basset horns and clarinets was unforgettable; a magnificent tour de force from all 13 players.
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