SCO, 19/04/2013

Purcell : Suite from King Arthur
Britten : Prelude and Fugue for Strings
Purcell (arr. Egarr) : Four Catches and a Rondeau
Britten : Courtly Dances from Gloriana
Britten : A Hymn to the Virgin
Pärt : Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Purcell : "My Heart is indicting"

SCO Chorus
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Richard Egarr

This was the first of two very different concerts marking the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth.  The second, next week, mostly looks forward from Britten, whereas tonight we were mostly looking back, and to a composer for whom Britten had the greatest admiration, Henry Purcell.  If you've been reading this blog regularly, or even just looking at the list of tags, you'll have realised I'm not a big fan of 'early music', on the whole.  Purcell, however, is one of the exceptions, of his time and yet beyond it, a maverick whose inventiveness evokes a response that I don't find with many (if any) of his contemporaries, and it's all the better when presented by a bright, ebullient, keen communicator like Richard Egarr.

Oddly enough, the weakest element of the programme was the final one, the Coronation Anthem "My Heart is inditing".  I had the impression that chorus and orchestra hadn't had quite enough rehearsal time together; independently, each was good, but something wasn't quite gelling between them.  The early Britten choral piece, "A Hymn to the Virgin", which is unaccompanied, was excellent.  Egarr ran this piece almost directly into the Pärt.  He pointed out that it is in the same key, but when heard so closely, the weeping melodic lines also seemed to be derived directly from the opening of the Britten Hymn.  An ingenious bit of programming - even if he did say so himself.

Similarly ingenious was the construction of the "Four Catches and a Rondeau".  Egarr explained that he had arranged four Purcell catches (songs in the form of a round, usually drinking songs with texts that don't really bear repeating in polite company!), linking them with the Rondeau theme from Abdelazar, the one Britten used in the Young Person's Guide, but revisited in a decidedly quirky fashion.  Not only was it an interesting arrangement in its own right, it served well as a prelude to the Gloriana Dances which, although scored for much bigger forces, seemed to inhabit a similar world.

It was the dance element throughout most of the pieces that was the brightest factor of the evening; the movements from King Arthur (again, selected by Egarr), the zing of the Britten Fugue, the sprightly and skewed Courtly Dances.  Egarr himself seemed caught up in the dance while conducting, full of energy and enthusiasm.  I've heard this orchestra play with greater precision and articulation than they displayed tonight, but the freshness and vigour of their approach were sufficient compensation in themselves.

[Next: 26th April]