SCO, 10/2/2012

Cherubini : Overture to Démophöon
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" (Llyr Williams)
Beethoven : Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Andrew Manze
When you (temporarily) remove the real giants of music from the picture, and take a closer look at what remains or what emerges from the shadows, things can get interesting.  Here is Cherubini, much admired by Beethoven, who gets very little air-time these days, and yet there's real meat in his music, and his position as a significant lynch-pin between changing styles becomes very evident.  Also, when faced with music of such vitality as this operatic overture, one has to wonder why the operas themselves are rarely, if ever heard.  Is it really probable that the overture is the only thing worth hearing in Démophöon?  I have two hypotheses; either the libretto is such a clunker that even Cherubini didn't have enough talent to overcome it, or else the logistical demands of the piece are simply too overwhelming for any modern company to take on.  Whatever the truth, the overture made a rousing start to the evening, full of vim and vigour.

I've expressed my high opinion of Llyr Williams elsewhere in this blog (here, and I apologise for misspelling his first name; I'm unable to put a circumflex over the letter y) and tonight has merely confirmed that opinion.  Here was an "Emperor" that was authoritative without bombast, stately without rigidity, challenging, well articulated and altogether absorbing.  Williams has an unassuming but calmly confident presence, he sits still at the piano (of which I very much approve, probably because I was taught that way myself - don't thrash about at the keyboard, I was told, it wastes energy better directed into your hands), and he plays with a luminously clear tone and total engagement, a constant joy to hear.  The Adagio sang like the sweet precursor to Chopin and Bellini it is (but is so rarely heard as), while the finale had a spiky energy as piano and orchestra played catch-as-catch-can around the rondo theme.  Having raised the roof with his Beethoven, we were treated to a Brahms Intermezzo for an encore, warmly autumnal and soothing.

I had noticed, but overlooked the faintly squally sound of the horns from the outset, but with the "Eroica" they became impossible to ignore, and I finally registered that the section was using natural, rather than valve horns.  It takes a little getting used to, in the context of an otherwise modern-instrument orchestra, but really came into its own in the last movement, with the hunting-horn fanfares.

Here was Beethoven the revolutionary at full blast, not just pushing the envelope of the then-conventions of symphonic form, but positively cracking the seams.  Manze and the SCO again met the challenges with enthusiasm and great energy, their sound vibrant, exciting and invigorating, the music resounding like a sort of universal key, always original, but looking forward and back too, echoes of Bach and Mozart from the past, of Berlioz and Wagner from the future.  A truly exhilarating evening.

[Next: 22 February]