SCO, 14/10/2016

Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro - Overture
Suckling : Piano Concerto
Strauss : Le bourgeois gentilhomme - Suite

Tom Poster, piano
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Thierry Fischer

It's amazing how the merest whiff of contemporary music can send audiences running in the opposite direction.  Tonight's concert hall was barely half full, which for an otherwise unexceptionable programme, at the start of the concert season, seemed odd.  That is, until you realised that the concerto item had had its world premiere two days earlier, and was tonight only on its third outing.

It was introduced by a smartly and crisply delivered Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, something I hope will be echoed at Scottish Opera next week when I go to see their current production of that opera.  It also augured well for the Strauss that was to close the problem, because the two share that bustling, slightly mischievous atmosphere.  In between, however, came 'local boy' Martin Suckling's brand-new Piano Concerto.

Suckling is the Associate Composer for the SCO, so I've heard a couple of his pieces from this orchestra over the last few years.  I've never disliked them outright, but neither have they spoken to me particularly, and it was much the same with the Piano Concerto.  Written in five movements, with the three central ones lightly linked together, it lasts about half an hour, though there were passages when it felt longer, when a movement felt like it had come to a conclusion, only to continue on some more.

The piano begins on its own, source material for the rest of the first movement, and similarly, it concludes the piece on its own, while that concept of it being an originator continues throughout.  While the balance between soloist and orchestra was always nicely observed, there were times when the piano writing was really too reminiscent of Messiaen.  I liked the 'slow' movement, with chimes from the piano over unearthly harmonics from the upper strings, and deep, almost organ-like chords from the lower instruments gathering prominence as the movement progressed, but here too, it just went on that bit too long.  The playing, both from soloist Tom Poster and the orchestra, sounded more than competent though, of course, it's difficult to judge when the work is unknown, and the musical idiom not very familiar.

Poster returned, discreetly, to the platform for the second half to play the piano in the suite drawn from Richard Strauss's incidental music to Le bourgeois gentilhomme.  This charming and witty score is always a delight, and it's a piece particularly well suited to the SCO - in fact the last time I heard it in concert was with this band, under the late Sir Charles Mackerras, just a few months before his death.  Those were big shoes to fill, but Thierry Fischer (replacing an indisposed Robin Ticciati) managed well, clearly enjoying the score, along with the musicians, and relishing all the little details, and how Strauss produces such a rich sound with such discreet forces.  This was a performance full of freshness and sparkle, and a delightful conclusion to the evening.

[Next : 18th October]