SCO, 10/01/14

Mozart : Symphony No. 32, K.318
Mozart : Concerto for flute and harp, K. 299 (Alison Mitchell, flute; Sivan Magen, harp)
Debussy : Danses sacrée et profane (Sivan Magen, harp)
Bizet : Symphony in C

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Joseph Swensen

This was a delightful programme with which to start my new year of concerts.  Mozart's 32nd Symphony is so short it's more like a sampler than a full-scale work, but the bright and lively reading made it a very appealing opening to the proceedings.  It was followed by one of Mozart's most felicitous concertos, that for flute and harp.  Despite Mozart's avowed dislike of both instruments, he crafted a lovely, serene and elegant work for them, and it was beautifully rendered by the orchestra's principal flautist, Alison Mitchell, and guest soloist Sivan Magen on the harp.

The rapport between the soloists was very clear.  Usually, soloists keep a weather eye on the conductor, understandably, but here, Magen was watching Mitchell, and Mitchell, having been the SCO's lead flautist for the last decade, is obviously extremely familiar both with the band and the conductor, Swensen being a regular at the helm of the SCO for many years now.  She therefore required very little 'guidance', knowing and trusting her partners completely, which in turn allowed Magen to focus on her without hesitation, and that complicity came through splendidly in their playing.

Magen returned after the interval to play the harp for the Debussy Danses sacrée et profane, a commission designed to show off the ill-fated Pleyel chromatic harp, which, fortunately for all harpists, subsequently translated comfortably to the now standard pedal harp.  Heard so close together, the difference in the writing for the harp between the Mozart and the Debussy was particularly striking.  With the Mozart, the harp is essentially used as a sort of vertical keyboard instrument - it's not difficult to imagine the harp part transposed onto a real keyboard part.  By the time Debussy was writing, the instrument itself had evolved considerably, and so had the type of writing associated with it.  Magen produced a rich, warm sound with a very wide dynamic range, both strong and graceful, stately at first, then swinging gently into the slow, seductive waltz of the second dance, and finishing with just a hint of a saucy wink.

When he has soloists on stage, Swensen's a relatively sedate conductor.  Left to his own devices with the orchestra, he turns into an arm-swaying, hip-wiggling, knee-bending, dancing platform divo.  It's quite endearing, actually, and well conveyed the zest with which he approached Bizet's youthful Symphony in C.  If the first movement, for all its bright-eyed freshness, isn't perhaps immediately identifiable as being by the future composer of Carmen, from the second movement onwards, you start hearing real hints of what was to become the hallmark of the mature Bizet in the writing for the woodwinds.  The beguiling oboe melody of the Adagio was played with eloquent charm by Robin Williams, while the scherzo bounded along with appropriately rustic vigour, and the finale fizzed by like a fistful of sparklers.

[Next : 17th January]