SCO Beethoven Violin Concerto Nicola Benedetti Usher Hall Edinburgh 14th December 2023 Review
SCO Beethoven Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti at the Usher Hall Edinburgh was a performance played to a full concert hall this evening, and as usual from the SCO the full programme of music was diverse but with common threads running through everything.
Opening this evening’s musical programme was a performance by one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, Jessie Montgomery and “Strum” (2006 rev. 2012).
Strum, with its opening innovative use of violin and rhythms, may seem totally unconnected to the other music by Mozart and Beethoven performed tonight, but for me those connections of how the music is structured and their common celebratory conclusions unify all three works. With Strum, Montgomery is also playing with mood, emotions, colours and tones whilst exploring at the same time almost folk roots in her music, and both Mozart and Beethoven were to explore these areas to their full extent in their own music.
A more direct connection in the music is between Mozart and Beethoven and that is the then music capital of the world, Vienna. If you wanted your music to be hopefully both popular and critically acclaimed then there was no other city to be in. Vienna could make or break your professional reputation and your fortunes. Both works tonight achieved very different responses for Mozart and Beethoven on their first performances.
Mozart Symphony No 34 in C (1780) is a bit of an enigma; for some unknown reason Mozart tore out the pages of his manuscript for the second movement (sometimes now performed with minuets from elsewhere) leaving a short symphony lasting just over 20 minutes. What is in this symphony though is amazing and gives glimpses of what was still to come from Mozart.
With brightness, a sense of the joys of life and the almost obligatory ceremonial fanfare, you can almost feel the presence of the young Mozart, then only 24 years old, composing this work. Symphony No 34 feels so alive, so bright and in places so different from some of his later works when a darker side of his inner psyche begin to surface. That look of pleasure on the faces of many of the SCO musicians as they performed this music tonight gave us all some idea of what hearing this music for the first time in Vienna must have sounded and felt like.
Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (1806) received a muted response at the time and languished a bit in the shadows of his more famous and much more popular works for many years, but as is so often the case time is the ultimate judge of many things and today this work is recognised for what it always has been - a work of inspired imagination and beauty.
For any lover of Beethoven’s work, this concerto is in some ways so different from so many of his other works and the opening takes its time to incorporate the solo violinist into the main orchestral work, but when it does the musical opportunities that it offers to that performer are exceptional. Beethoven’s own personal life at the time of writing this work was full of contrasting emotions, full of lightness and darkness, sadness and joy and the individual movements of this work reflect all of these qualities and give us glimpses into the man behind the music.
It takes a special musician to breathe life into a work like this whilst also celebrating at the same time its originality, passion, emotion and colours and Nicola Benedetti’s performance deserved all the applause that it received this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Opening this evening’s musical programme was a performance by one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, Jessie Montgomery and “Strum” (2006 rev. 2012).
Strum, with its opening innovative use of violin and rhythms, may seem totally unconnected to the other music by Mozart and Beethoven performed tonight, but for me those connections of how the music is structured and their common celebratory conclusions unify all three works. With Strum, Montgomery is also playing with mood, emotions, colours and tones whilst exploring at the same time almost folk roots in her music, and both Mozart and Beethoven were to explore these areas to their full extent in their own music.
A more direct connection in the music is between Mozart and Beethoven and that is the then music capital of the world, Vienna. If you wanted your music to be hopefully both popular and critically acclaimed then there was no other city to be in. Vienna could make or break your professional reputation and your fortunes. Both works tonight achieved very different responses for Mozart and Beethoven on their first performances.
Mozart Symphony No 34 in C (1780) is a bit of an enigma; for some unknown reason Mozart tore out the pages of his manuscript for the second movement (sometimes now performed with minuets from elsewhere) leaving a short symphony lasting just over 20 minutes. What is in this symphony though is amazing and gives glimpses of what was still to come from Mozart.
With brightness, a sense of the joys of life and the almost obligatory ceremonial fanfare, you can almost feel the presence of the young Mozart, then only 24 years old, composing this work. Symphony No 34 feels so alive, so bright and in places so different from some of his later works when a darker side of his inner psyche begin to surface. That look of pleasure on the faces of many of the SCO musicians as they performed this music tonight gave us all some idea of what hearing this music for the first time in Vienna must have sounded and felt like.
Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major (1806) received a muted response at the time and languished a bit in the shadows of his more famous and much more popular works for many years, but as is so often the case time is the ultimate judge of many things and today this work is recognised for what it always has been - a work of inspired imagination and beauty.
For any lover of Beethoven’s work, this concerto is in some ways so different from so many of his other works and the opening takes its time to incorporate the solo violinist into the main orchestral work, but when it does the musical opportunities that it offers to that performer are exceptional. Beethoven’s own personal life at the time of writing this work was full of contrasting emotions, full of lightness and darkness, sadness and joy and the individual movements of this work reflect all of these qualities and give us glimpses into the man behind the music.
It takes a special musician to breathe life into a work like this whilst also celebrating at the same time its originality, passion, emotion and colours and Nicola Benedetti’s performance deserved all the applause that it received this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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