RSNO, 29/10/2011

Alexander Mackenzie : Benedictus
Martinu : Symphony No. 6 "Fantaisies Symphoniques"
Mozart : Requiem

Sarah-Jane Brandon (soprano)
Jurgita Adamonyté (mezzo-soprano)
Benjamin Hulett (tenor)
Matthew Rose (bass)
RSNO Chorus (Timothy Dean)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

Peter Oundjian is the new Music Director-elect of the RSNO, due to take up the post as of next season, and this was the first time I'd heard him with the band, in an interestingly varied programme that I hope is somewhat representative of the general type of programming he plans to favour in the future.

That said, the Mackenzie piece did not strike me as hugely interesting.  Mackenzie was a Scottish composer, more or less contemporary with Elgar (slightly older), whose principal influence on British music would appear to have been more as a teacher and administrator than as a composer.  He was the Principal of the Royal Academy of Music for close to 40 years around the turn of the 20th Century.  In this, he rejoins the likes of Parry and Stanford, who are significant for their influence on the students that passed through their hands, but whose own music has yet to convince me of great, sterling qualities, never mind originality.  This "Benedictus" was originally a piece for violin and piano, orchestrated by the composer.  It was - nice.  However, by this time tomorrow, I am pretty sure I will not be able to recall so much as a bar of melody.

Martinu is a completely different matter.  His rustling, motoric rhythm cells, illuminated by surging arches of melody, and the characteristic suspended cadences, are instantly recognisable, and I'd really like to hear a lot more of it in concert, instead of having to fall back on my own collection.  There was a lovely warmth in the string sound here, and good clarity throughout the sections, which is very important in the intricate textures of this music.  I'd have liked something a little more liquid from the winds, they were a touch dry for my taste, but the music was vibrant and vital and very enjoyable.

Having experienced an exceptional Mozart Requiem at the end of last season from the SCO (see reviews for May '11), I wasn't expecting to get that lucky twice.  Indeed, it could hardly be the same type of performance, not with a chorus three to four times the size of the SCO Chorus.  With something like 120 singers on stage, this reading was pretty firmly in the standard mid-20th Century mould.  Given their size, I was reasonably impressed with the articulation of the chorus, whose diction was excellent, and who only slipped gears just a trifle at the start of the mirrored fugues at the beginning and end, but real subtlety with forces that size is pretty well impossible.  The solo quartet was pleasing without being really distinguished, but I will be keeping an eye (and ear) out for Benjamin Hulett in the future.

What really made this performance interesting, however, were the three trombones of the orchestra.  Not counting the "Tuba mirum" solo, the trombones are primarily used to double the lower voices of the chorus, especially in the fugues, and it requires a certain degree of virtuosity, not to mention excellent timing on the part of the players.  We got that in spades here; these three weren't church trombones in some Baroque Austrian chapel, they were playing Gabrieli in St. Mark's!  I've never noticed those parts so acutely as tonight, and it was pretty riveting.  Perhaps a little unbalanced, technically speaking, but anything that sheds new light on a very familiar score without excessive distortion is worth hearing.