SCO Cafe de Paris Queen's Hall Edinburgh 25h February 2024 Review
SCO Café de Paris with Maxim and Friends at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh this afternoon was a fine example of an organisation listening to what its audiences were asking for – a selection of concerts performed at an afternoon rather than an evening time-slot. The current SCO 2023/24 programme now has some 2pm weekday performances and this is the first with a Sunday afternoon concert time. The SCO are on fairly safe ground with this time slot as the Usher Hall have been running a very successful “Sunday Classics” afternoon programme for some years now and it has always been well attended by audiences. Likewise this SCO Sunday afternoon concert was well attended too.
This programme of music was obviously curated to be a little bit different from other SCO performances and perhaps even a little bit lighter in its musical nature with a small number of the orchestra being given the opportunity to highlight their musical talents in a very relaxed atmosphere of group and solo performances. With an ensemble small enough to play at many a Parisienne café, the selection of music, as always from the SCO, was diverse in its content and introduced me to composers both known and new.
The advertising image for this concert may evoke for many people that “Café de Paris” world of the late 19th, early 20th century that we are so familiar with in the artwork of Toulouse Lautrec, but the music performed this afternoon takes us into the mid-1940s. Still though, there was often that sense of fun, lightness of spirit and that warm glow of nostalgia for a time now long past. Interestingly though, some of this music was very much at odds with contemporary music of the period, sometimes causing eyebrows amongst the musical traditionalists to be raised with its modernity.
Opening this programme of music was a three part work from 1947 by composer Jean Françaix – “L’heure du berger (Musique de brasserie)”. Here, somehow that very feeling of being in a smart café space and listening to the dialogue of people translated into music and the very different types of people in the room (again captured in music) is achieved and the SCO ensemble were obviously having so much fun here.
A wonderfully fluid work by Ravel – “Jeux d’eau” performed by Maxim Emelyanychev on piano perfectly captured that feeling of flowing “water music” and it is easy to understand why this work was so important at establishing Ravel’s musical authority when first performed.
The next musical performance to finish off the first half of today’s programme was Jolivet’s Chant de Linos which gave André Cebrián a huge range of musical colours, styles and emotions to play with and highlight his impressive skills on flute. With Maxim Emelyanychev on piano this work from 1944 often saw flute and piano in stark contrast to one another.
The opening of the second half of today’s programme, Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie was an opportunity to hear not only a wonderful work on piano by Maxim Emelyanychev, but also an opportunity for Maximiliano Martín to remind us all of his always impressive technical and interpretive skills on clarinet.
Closing this programme of music for the afternoon was another work that was full of fun, full of the unexpected and very individual - Poulenc Sextet. This is a composer who is new to me and I did get that feeling of a composer who knew exactly what he wanted to do, and due to the wealth of his family had the freedom to pursue his musical visions without having to please or compromise with anyone else. Written between 1932 and 1939 there are playful moments of musical fun which often reminded me of the soundtrack to animated cartoons of the time.
The SCO musicians performing this afternoon either as an ensemble or solo were Maxim Emelanychev (piano), André Cebrián (flute), Robin Williams (oboe), Maximiliano Martín (clarinet), Cerys Ambrose-Evans (bassoon) and Máté Börzsönyi (horn).
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This programme of music was obviously curated to be a little bit different from other SCO performances and perhaps even a little bit lighter in its musical nature with a small number of the orchestra being given the opportunity to highlight their musical talents in a very relaxed atmosphere of group and solo performances. With an ensemble small enough to play at many a Parisienne café, the selection of music, as always from the SCO, was diverse in its content and introduced me to composers both known and new.
The advertising image for this concert may evoke for many people that “Café de Paris” world of the late 19th, early 20th century that we are so familiar with in the artwork of Toulouse Lautrec, but the music performed this afternoon takes us into the mid-1940s. Still though, there was often that sense of fun, lightness of spirit and that warm glow of nostalgia for a time now long past. Interestingly though, some of this music was very much at odds with contemporary music of the period, sometimes causing eyebrows amongst the musical traditionalists to be raised with its modernity.
Opening this programme of music was a three part work from 1947 by composer Jean Françaix – “L’heure du berger (Musique de brasserie)”. Here, somehow that very feeling of being in a smart café space and listening to the dialogue of people translated into music and the very different types of people in the room (again captured in music) is achieved and the SCO ensemble were obviously having so much fun here.
A wonderfully fluid work by Ravel – “Jeux d’eau” performed by Maxim Emelyanychev on piano perfectly captured that feeling of flowing “water music” and it is easy to understand why this work was so important at establishing Ravel’s musical authority when first performed.
The next musical performance to finish off the first half of today’s programme was Jolivet’s Chant de Linos which gave André Cebrián a huge range of musical colours, styles and emotions to play with and highlight his impressive skills on flute. With Maxim Emelyanychev on piano this work from 1944 often saw flute and piano in stark contrast to one another.
The opening of the second half of today’s programme, Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie was an opportunity to hear not only a wonderful work on piano by Maxim Emelyanychev, but also an opportunity for Maximiliano Martín to remind us all of his always impressive technical and interpretive skills on clarinet.
Closing this programme of music for the afternoon was another work that was full of fun, full of the unexpected and very individual - Poulenc Sextet. This is a composer who is new to me and I did get that feeling of a composer who knew exactly what he wanted to do, and due to the wealth of his family had the freedom to pursue his musical visions without having to please or compromise with anyone else. Written between 1932 and 1939 there are playful moments of musical fun which often reminded me of the soundtrack to animated cartoons of the time.
The SCO musicians performing this afternoon either as an ensemble or solo were Maxim Emelanychev (piano), André Cebrián (flute), Robin Williams (oboe), Maximiliano Martín (clarinet), Cerys Ambrose-Evans (bassoon) and Máté Börzsönyi (horn).
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.