Vaughan Williams : Fantasia on Greensleeves
Debussy : Trio for flute, viola and harp
Ravel : Pavane pour une infante défunte
Debussy : Syrinx
Alwyn : Naiades
Ibert : Entr'acte from The Surgeon of His Honour
Poulenc : Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone
Stravinsky : L'Histoire du Soldat
Andrew Barratt, narrator
Members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Jean-Claude Picard
This was actually two 1-hour concerts, performed successively this evening in the context of Glasgow's West End Festival and the Cottier Chamber Project. The first was effectively a recital for flute and harp (Katherine Bryan and Pippa Tunnell), with the addition of Tom Dunn for the Debussy Trio. It was a nicely chosen programme on the whole. The combination of flute and harp has a faintly archaic feel to it, and the music, mostly from the beginning of the 20th Century, played right into that, with their evocations of bygone ages of chivalry, and hints of magic. It also fitted the venue, the Cottiers Theatre, housed in a neo-Gothic church with extensive vestiges of an elaborate Arts & Crafts-style decor still visible, and all the connotations of mediaeval heraldry that carries.
However, it is a limited repertory, which means artists wanting to explore this combination have to resort to a considerable degree to arrangements, with greater or lesser success. Neither of the two used here, the Vaughan Williams or the Ravel, struck me as particularly felicitous. The Vaughan Williams, which is an orchestral original, only sounded like itself in a couple of passages, but otherwise lost almost all of his very distinctive touch in the reduction, while the Ravel became curiously mushy in texture.
The rest of the programme, however, was appropriate for the instruments, and came across very successfully. I would have liked a little more assertiveness from Pippa Tunnell, her playing was very soft and intimate, and the Debussy in particular can take a sharper sound from the harp, and a more rhythmic attack, but there may have been acoustic issues I didn't grasp. No such problems for Bryan's flute, and she cast a spell of pure enchantment with her haunting and exquisite Syrinx.
They followed up with a real rarity, William Alwyn's Fantasy Sonata for flute and harp, Naiades. Alwyn's probably much better known for his film scores ("The Crimson Pirate" or "Odd Man Out", amongst many, many others) than anything else, but he was a prolific and versatile composer who produced works in many genres. Naiades is a late work, lyrical and poetic, and given a persuasive reading that would suggest exploring his music further.
The lively Ibert espagnolade that concluded the recital did seem to break with the overall theme a little (though as it's a piece of incidental music for a Calderón play, maybe not so much), but it did sweep away the mists and webs of enchantments to make a good bridge in preparation for the more astringent musical worlds of Poulenc and Stravinsky that followed after an hour's break.
Poulenc is often dismissed as a pale echo of Stravinsky, which is complete nonsense. It's true there's an influence, but then who did Stravinsky not influence? At any rate, Stravinsky could never have written this humorous little piece for three brass instruments, by turns playful, flirtatious or wryly sentimental. That sort of blend is pure Poulenc, completely charming while being gently ridiculous. Brian McGinley (trumpet), Andy Saunders (horn) and Dávur Juul Magnussen (trombone) were, I think, just a little challenged by having to take this on completely cold - most brass players, as far as I know, do better with a bit of a warm-up period - and the performance wasn't quite clean, but it was very appealing.
And so to The Soldier's Tale, presented with one narrator and the original septet instrumental formation, conducted by the RSNO's Assistant Conductor Jean-Claude Picard. I felt that it took everyone, musicians and narrator alike, quite a while to find their marks in this piece. Andrew Barrett was certainly having a little trouble with fitting his text to the opening March right at the beginning, and there was some fluctuation of scansion in the reading. However, from the Royal March, and the start of the second half of the story, something suddenly clicked into place, and the ensemble acquired that acidic glitter that the music demands, while Barratt hit his stride and never looked back, managing the voices distinctly but without caricature.
I think that it's a Good Thing for the orchestral members to find outlets to perform in chamber groupings like this, and if this kind of programming is characteristic of the work they like and want to do in this domain, well, more power to them. It was certainly a very agreeable way to spend a summer Sunday evening.
[Next : 24th June]
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