SCO, 06/11/2015

Brahms : Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn
Wagner : Wesendonck-Lieder (Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano)
Wagner : Siegfried Idyll
Schubert : Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Emmanuel Krivine

Emmanuel Krivine is no newcomer to the SCO, but has just signed up for four years as Principal Guest Conductor, and these last three nights (5th to 7th) have been his first outing with the orchestra in that guise.  I remember hearing quite a bit of Krivine via French radio, mainly during the 80s, and not being greatly enthralled with him, but that was a while back and musicians change and develop, so given his new relationship with the SCO, it was high time to give things another go.  Regrettably, I remain as unimpressed as I was back then.

First up were the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Haydn (more popularly known as the St. Anthony Variations).  Originally written for two pianos, Brahms created the much better-known orchestral version much at the same time, and it is one of the earliest instances of free-standing variations for the orchestra in music history.  It's one of Brahms's happiest works; he may have got the attribution wrong, but Papa Haydn's spirit smiles genially over the proceedings nevertheless - or at least, it should.  Krivine gave us what can only be called a very academic reading, staid and humourless, with a texture like a failed soufflé, soggy instead of rich and airy.  The piece lacked both flow and inspiration.

For the Wesendonck-Lieder, the orchestra took a bit of a back seat to Karen Cargill's sumptuous mezzo voice.  However, I've heard what she can do with this cycle, and tonight, for some reason, despite the quality of the voice, there was something a little odd about her performance.  She wasn't mispronouncing the text, but rather over-articulating it, with some very exaggerated effects, which seemed strange, as she's hardly a novice in this field.  Without a more supportive presence of the orchestra, I was uncomfortably aware of occasional unevennesses in the timbre, created by this oddity of pronunciation, and could only sometimes find the glowing, vibrant interpretation I heard back in 2013.

After the stodgy Brahms, I was somewhat dreading what might happen to Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, for here is another piece with a rich texture that nevertheless needs a certain quality of delicacy, especially in the full orchestral version, more unwieldy that the original 13-player version.  It also tends to be slower in the orchestral edition, and a couple of times, Krivine pulled the tempo back almost to a dead stop, but on the whole this was a more successful reading, with the gradual acceleration to the bird-song and sunrise passage very well negotiated.

However, there's no doubt that the most successful item was Schubert's "Unfinished".  Here, finally, we got the kind of transparency in the orchestra that had been lacking all evening, a balanced sound correctly applied, and with the right tempi too, particularly in the second movement, which was especially expressive.  It was as if the orchestra had been trying on the wrong clothes all evening, and had finally found the right fit.  If this can be reproduced in Krivine's other concerts, then there may indeed be things worth hearing and discovering in this collaboration, but there was far too much indifferent music-making going on tonight for me to welcome it unreservedly.

[Next : 7th November]