SCO Baroque Inspirations Queen's Hall Edinburgh 19th February 2026 Review
SCO Baroque Inspirations at the Queen's Hall this evening was a mixture of familiar, slightly familiar, and completely (for me anyhow) unexpected musical twists and turns.
Over the last few years, Principal Conductor (also playing harpsichord tonight) Maxim Emelyanychev's "Baroque Inspirations" events have become one of the SCO's most popular concerts, and his ability to select works from diverse sources and time periods and somehow have everything fit together in one larger musical thread is always in itself a pleasure to listen to. There is also always this air of informality to these concerts with the music itself continuing off-stage during the interval.
Tonight's programme was as below, and although over 300 years separate this music, that return by later composers for their "Baroque Inspirations" was always very clear in their music.
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3 (1718)
BRITTEN Simple Symphony (1933-34)
HANDEL Water Music Suite in F (1717)
Interval
SCARLATTI (arr CAPPERAULD) Stylus Scarlatti (World Premiere)* (2026)
SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite (1980)
Five very different works leave little space in this review to do more than outline the music performed tonight, and opening this concert with BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3 not only provided this audience with an instantly recognisable work, but set the musical focal point for everything that was to follow. In total, there are six Brandenburg Concertos, but this one, written for strings alone (three violins, three violas and three cellos) with its baseline and harmonies, never seems to age.
The fact that these concertos were written by Bach in an attempt to get some work, mailed away to Price Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen (who never replied) meant that this music was never performed at the time, and the Brandenburg Concertos had to wait until their manuscripts were re-discovered in the Brandenburg archives in 1849 before the world was to even know about the wonderful music contained within them.
Over 200 years separate Brandenburg Concerto No 3 and the next work, BRITTEN Simple Symphony. This work was composed when Britten was only 20 years old and is mostly based upon snippets of music that he had created much earlier (aged 9-12 years old). Still, this finished work is a wonderful and playful adventure into musical forms (including Baroque) and sees Britten already fusing his love of traditional English music and dance forms with European styles. The plucked strings section is a joy in itself to listen to.
Before the interval, we sail down the river with HANDEL Water Music Suite in F . Written for the then King George 1, this is the modern day equivalent of music for the super rich and their friends aboard their luxury super-yacht, and tonight's Suite No 1 gives us all a small glimpse of the power, wealth and status that this work was created for.
Opening the post interval music was a world premiere of music with SCARLATTI (arr CAPPERAULD) Stylus Scarlatti. SCO Associate Composer, Jay Capperauld is one of my favourite contemporary composers, and there is always something very original and modern about his work even when, like here, it is also paying homage to the past, in this case, the music of Italian Baroque composer, Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), a man perhaps known to many modern audiences more for his association with Mozart, and of course the 1979 film "Amadeus".
Closing this evening’s music was SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite. Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is a composer whom I am only starting to discover, and part of the reason for that is that so much of his work was written under the old Soviet Block regime and rarely heard in the West.
How to even start to describe "Gogol Suite" is itself a bit of a challenge as it is at times more like a magpie's collection of bits and pieces, a strange kaleidoscopic mix of music from diverse time periods and styles with an unusual selection of instruments, including electric guitar, electric bass guitar and some unusual percussion sounds. This work should not on paper be fusing together, but somehow in Schnittke's hands it does, and just as importantly it is all simply fun to listen to, and the smiles on the faces of many of the SCO musicians whilst performing this work pretty much said everything that there is to say about it this evening.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Over the last few years, Principal Conductor (also playing harpsichord tonight) Maxim Emelyanychev's "Baroque Inspirations" events have become one of the SCO's most popular concerts, and his ability to select works from diverse sources and time periods and somehow have everything fit together in one larger musical thread is always in itself a pleasure to listen to. There is also always this air of informality to these concerts with the music itself continuing off-stage during the interval.
Tonight's programme was as below, and although over 300 years separate this music, that return by later composers for their "Baroque Inspirations" was always very clear in their music.
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3 (1718)
BRITTEN Simple Symphony (1933-34)
HANDEL Water Music Suite in F (1717)
Interval
SCARLATTI (arr CAPPERAULD) Stylus Scarlatti (World Premiere)* (2026)
SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite (1980)
Five very different works leave little space in this review to do more than outline the music performed tonight, and opening this concert with BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3 not only provided this audience with an instantly recognisable work, but set the musical focal point for everything that was to follow. In total, there are six Brandenburg Concertos, but this one, written for strings alone (three violins, three violas and three cellos) with its baseline and harmonies, never seems to age.
The fact that these concertos were written by Bach in an attempt to get some work, mailed away to Price Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen (who never replied) meant that this music was never performed at the time, and the Brandenburg Concertos had to wait until their manuscripts were re-discovered in the Brandenburg archives in 1849 before the world was to even know about the wonderful music contained within them.
Over 200 years separate Brandenburg Concerto No 3 and the next work, BRITTEN Simple Symphony. This work was composed when Britten was only 20 years old and is mostly based upon snippets of music that he had created much earlier (aged 9-12 years old). Still, this finished work is a wonderful and playful adventure into musical forms (including Baroque) and sees Britten already fusing his love of traditional English music and dance forms with European styles. The plucked strings section is a joy in itself to listen to.
Before the interval, we sail down the river with HANDEL Water Music Suite in F . Written for the then King George 1, this is the modern day equivalent of music for the super rich and their friends aboard their luxury super-yacht, and tonight's Suite No 1 gives us all a small glimpse of the power, wealth and status that this work was created for.
Opening the post interval music was a world premiere of music with SCARLATTI (arr CAPPERAULD) Stylus Scarlatti. SCO Associate Composer, Jay Capperauld is one of my favourite contemporary composers, and there is always something very original and modern about his work even when, like here, it is also paying homage to the past, in this case, the music of Italian Baroque composer, Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), a man perhaps known to many modern audiences more for his association with Mozart, and of course the 1979 film "Amadeus".
Closing this evening’s music was SCHNITTKE Gogol Suite. Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is a composer whom I am only starting to discover, and part of the reason for that is that so much of his work was written under the old Soviet Block regime and rarely heard in the West.
How to even start to describe "Gogol Suite" is itself a bit of a challenge as it is at times more like a magpie's collection of bits and pieces, a strange kaleidoscopic mix of music from diverse time periods and styles with an unusual selection of instruments, including electric guitar, electric bass guitar and some unusual percussion sounds. This work should not on paper be fusing together, but somehow in Schnittke's hands it does, and just as importantly it is all simply fun to listen to, and the smiles on the faces of many of the SCO musicians whilst performing this work pretty much said everything that there is to say about it this evening.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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