SCO Borealis Queen's Hall Edinburgh 31st October 2024 Review
SCO Borealis at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was one of my favourite concert experiences across any musical genre this year, and there are many reasons for this.
Firstly this concert series fits into the SCO New Dimensions programme in which the orchestra performs, with many premieres, work by contemporary composers which often challenges many pre-conceptions of how music and even individual instruments can sound.
Secondly, this aptly named “Borealis” programme is actually part of a far wider celebration of Nordic music as, for only the third time in its history, one of the world’s longest running music festivals, founded in 1888, “Nordic Music Days” is being held outside of a Nordic country. Scotland has very strong Nordic connections, and Shetland (not originally part of what we now call Scotland), is closer to Bergen in Norway than it is to Edinburgh. This fact was of major importance during WWII when it was also so close to German occupied Norway. Shetland is proud of its Nordic traditions and the Shetland Folk Festival (1st – 4th May in 2025) is a major event on many performers’ touring schedules and audiences’ go-to lists.
This review is, to be honest, a little bit unfair on all of the music performed tonight simply because there is so much here that any one of the works in this programme could easily merit its own review, and due to space and time the best that can be done here is to summarise them all too quickly.
The full programme of music tonight was as below and as Andrew Manze, Conductor, told us all, this created a special opportunity for the musicians of the SCO. As with many orchestras, particularly ones performing work from a wide range of classical music, the composers are dead, often very long dead. The best that anyone can ever do is hope that they interpret their music as they intended it to be played, but few left behind anything like detailed notes or even insights as to their thought processes when writing. Add into this that we are often hearing their music played on instruments with modern strings tuned to contemporary concert pitch. How close are we really to re-creating the original thoughts and sounds of Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven or many other composers?
CAPPERAULD Death in a Nutshell
HILLBORG Viola Concerto (Scottish Premiere)
ISAKSSON Tornio (Flows) (Scottish Premiere)
MACMILLAN Symphony No 2
With living composers, there are often not only detailed notes or interviews to work from, but often as tonight, the opportunity to work with a composer directly on their work and gain insights as to exactly how they want to hear it performed. Tonight very different works by two Nordic and two Scottish composers re-define how some members of the SCO play their instruments whilst also exploring new sound possibilities from them.
The first performed work “CAPPERAULD Death in a Nutshell” takes its name from the work of Frances Glessner Lee (check online for more information on her work) and her recreations in miniature of crime scenes, which still today are used as teaching tools. Here Jay Capperauld is painting with music and sound six of Lee’s (there are many more) detailed descriptions of crime scenes, and the results are superb as film noir and the SCO combine to create atmospheric and evocative soundscapes. In this world of crime and murder, I am also reminded of Bernard Herman’s classic scores for seven Hitchcock films. It is not, however, just the instruments of the orchestra that Capperauld is using here, but objects depicted in these crime scenes, and clanging wine bottles and rustling sheets of paper also make an appearance.
Also using music to depict a scene, this time from nature, ISAKSSON Tornio (Flows) (Scottish Premiere) is inspired by all of the water flowing from the far north as three border rivers flow between Finland and Sweden. The shifting seasons as water turn to ice and back to water once more are all reflected in this music.
HILLBORG Viola Concerto (Scottish Premiere) featuring Lawrence Power is, to start with, full of explosive, almost frantic energy that I do not usually associate with the viola. Here Hillborg also explores this instrument’s range to its fullest, often with unusual playing techniques for this and other stringed instruments whilst other SCO musicians weave an at times abstract and emotionally powerful wall of sound.
MACMILLAN Symphony No 2 takes a slightly different approach as the SCO take on very distinct musical personalities, each expressing very different, almost human personas to explore the world that they are experiencing around them in sound.
Although it always seems a little unfair to select any one member of an orchestra out in a review as any performance is by its very nature a collaborative one, a striking element of much of tonight was the often extensive use of percussion instruments. Here Louise Lewis Goodwin had a lot of work to do tonight, and it was always interesting to watch and listen to the many percussion performance techniques which she has at her disposal. Tonight, Andrew Manze, conductor, and the SCO were often taken into new performance spaces and the end results were something very special.
If you think you know what a chamber orchestra and the instruments that one plays sound like, then try to get along to a performance like this and be prepared for a surprise that may change how you view both forever.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Firstly this concert series fits into the SCO New Dimensions programme in which the orchestra performs, with many premieres, work by contemporary composers which often challenges many pre-conceptions of how music and even individual instruments can sound.
Secondly, this aptly named “Borealis” programme is actually part of a far wider celebration of Nordic music as, for only the third time in its history, one of the world’s longest running music festivals, founded in 1888, “Nordic Music Days” is being held outside of a Nordic country. Scotland has very strong Nordic connections, and Shetland (not originally part of what we now call Scotland), is closer to Bergen in Norway than it is to Edinburgh. This fact was of major importance during WWII when it was also so close to German occupied Norway. Shetland is proud of its Nordic traditions and the Shetland Folk Festival (1st – 4th May in 2025) is a major event on many performers’ touring schedules and audiences’ go-to lists.
This review is, to be honest, a little bit unfair on all of the music performed tonight simply because there is so much here that any one of the works in this programme could easily merit its own review, and due to space and time the best that can be done here is to summarise them all too quickly.
The full programme of music tonight was as below and as Andrew Manze, Conductor, told us all, this created a special opportunity for the musicians of the SCO. As with many orchestras, particularly ones performing work from a wide range of classical music, the composers are dead, often very long dead. The best that anyone can ever do is hope that they interpret their music as they intended it to be played, but few left behind anything like detailed notes or even insights as to their thought processes when writing. Add into this that we are often hearing their music played on instruments with modern strings tuned to contemporary concert pitch. How close are we really to re-creating the original thoughts and sounds of Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven or many other composers?
CAPPERAULD Death in a Nutshell
HILLBORG Viola Concerto (Scottish Premiere)
ISAKSSON Tornio (Flows) (Scottish Premiere)
MACMILLAN Symphony No 2
With living composers, there are often not only detailed notes or interviews to work from, but often as tonight, the opportunity to work with a composer directly on their work and gain insights as to exactly how they want to hear it performed. Tonight very different works by two Nordic and two Scottish composers re-define how some members of the SCO play their instruments whilst also exploring new sound possibilities from them.
The first performed work “CAPPERAULD Death in a Nutshell” takes its name from the work of Frances Glessner Lee (check online for more information on her work) and her recreations in miniature of crime scenes, which still today are used as teaching tools. Here Jay Capperauld is painting with music and sound six of Lee’s (there are many more) detailed descriptions of crime scenes, and the results are superb as film noir and the SCO combine to create atmospheric and evocative soundscapes. In this world of crime and murder, I am also reminded of Bernard Herman’s classic scores for seven Hitchcock films. It is not, however, just the instruments of the orchestra that Capperauld is using here, but objects depicted in these crime scenes, and clanging wine bottles and rustling sheets of paper also make an appearance.
Also using music to depict a scene, this time from nature, ISAKSSON Tornio (Flows) (Scottish Premiere) is inspired by all of the water flowing from the far north as three border rivers flow between Finland and Sweden. The shifting seasons as water turn to ice and back to water once more are all reflected in this music.
HILLBORG Viola Concerto (Scottish Premiere) featuring Lawrence Power is, to start with, full of explosive, almost frantic energy that I do not usually associate with the viola. Here Hillborg also explores this instrument’s range to its fullest, often with unusual playing techniques for this and other stringed instruments whilst other SCO musicians weave an at times abstract and emotionally powerful wall of sound.
MACMILLAN Symphony No 2 takes a slightly different approach as the SCO take on very distinct musical personalities, each expressing very different, almost human personas to explore the world that they are experiencing around them in sound.
Although it always seems a little unfair to select any one member of an orchestra out in a review as any performance is by its very nature a collaborative one, a striking element of much of tonight was the often extensive use of percussion instruments. Here Louise Lewis Goodwin had a lot of work to do tonight, and it was always interesting to watch and listen to the many percussion performance techniques which she has at her disposal. Tonight, Andrew Manze, conductor, and the SCO were often taken into new performance spaces and the end results were something very special.
If you think you know what a chamber orchestra and the instruments that one plays sound like, then try to get along to a performance like this and be prepared for a surprise that may change how you view both forever.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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