SCO Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Queen's Hall Edinburgh 12th December 2024 Review
SCO Eine Kleine Nachtmusik at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was the last concert here of 2024, so what better way to end things than with one of the most recognisable works in the whole classical music repertoire. I am working out of performance order here; this was the third (opening the second half), but even people who say that they never listen to or do not know any classical music will probably recognise the first few opening bars of two works at least – this one and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Maybe Eine Kleine Nachtmusik wins out of the two here as many people will also recognise music from all four surviving movements (a fifth has sadly been lost to us to date).
There is something about this music that is always special for me and somehow it lets the listener get a little bit closer to Mozart himself. The name that we all know this music by was given to this work by Mozart himself, and it is possible that he wrote it for private playing with his friends. This fact alone would make it unusual, as a working composer like Mozart would probably have had very little time to devote to non-income generating works. Maybe this is why Eine Kleine Nachtmusik always sounds so full of life, so fresh and just so much fun.
That sense of fun was certainly reflected in this fine performance by the SCO tonight, and the smiles on so many of the musicians’ faces when playing it pretty much said everything there really is to say about this music, making it hard to believe now that Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was not published until after Mozart’s death, in around 1827, some 50 years after its original creation.
Tonight’s programme was a real mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Two very well known composers, and two probably not that known to many people were featured. The other well known name was Franz Joseph Haydn, but even then, the SCO were probably bringing new music to many of us. I know very little about Hadyn the creator of operas (he wrote 14 of them), so HAYDN Overture, L’isola disabitata was new to me. This of course did mean that I was listening to this music without any background knowledge of its original narrative, but even then you can (with or without the help of the programme notes) imagine many possible stories of your own. This music might be a lesser known Haydn work, but in the hands of the SCO, everything that so many of us recognise as his music was there in this performance.
Franz Krommer (1759 – 1831) is a name unfamiliar to me so it came as a bit of a surprise to find out just how popular the music of this contemporary of Beethoven was during his lifetime. His fascination with the then relatively new instrument the clarinet is represented in this work, his Concerto No 1 in E-flat for two Clarinets, Op 35. The fact that both Krommer and Beethoven seem to share some similarities in parts of their music should have come as no surprise as both had support from the same wealthy aristocrat.
This was of course created to highlight the then relatively new sounds of the clarinet, and it provided a perfect space for Maximiliano Martín and William Stafford to bring Krommer’s work for this instrument to life again after too long in the shadows.
The final work tonight was by another composer that was new to me, Paul Wranitzky (1756-1806) and it is easy to understand from his Symphony in D, Op 36, performed tonight why his music was so popular with the Viennese public in his lifetime. This is classic energetic music with a trumpet fanfare that was so in vogue at the time. One thing is certain, and that is that Paul Wranitzky knew exactly what his public wanted to hear and the SCO took us all back to that time and place with their lively performance tonight.
There was also a not on the programme Mozart surprise tonight, but just in case this is still to be part of the forthcoming Glasgow concert, I am not going to tell you about it – sorry.
The end, then, of another year of music with the SCO, and as always it has been a pleasure to review their concerts, and along the way greatly expanded my listened to music with the many new composers and their works that they have brought to my attention in 2024.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There is something about this music that is always special for me and somehow it lets the listener get a little bit closer to Mozart himself. The name that we all know this music by was given to this work by Mozart himself, and it is possible that he wrote it for private playing with his friends. This fact alone would make it unusual, as a working composer like Mozart would probably have had very little time to devote to non-income generating works. Maybe this is why Eine Kleine Nachtmusik always sounds so full of life, so fresh and just so much fun.
That sense of fun was certainly reflected in this fine performance by the SCO tonight, and the smiles on so many of the musicians’ faces when playing it pretty much said everything there really is to say about this music, making it hard to believe now that Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was not published until after Mozart’s death, in around 1827, some 50 years after its original creation.
Tonight’s programme was a real mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Two very well known composers, and two probably not that known to many people were featured. The other well known name was Franz Joseph Haydn, but even then, the SCO were probably bringing new music to many of us. I know very little about Hadyn the creator of operas (he wrote 14 of them), so HAYDN Overture, L’isola disabitata was new to me. This of course did mean that I was listening to this music without any background knowledge of its original narrative, but even then you can (with or without the help of the programme notes) imagine many possible stories of your own. This music might be a lesser known Haydn work, but in the hands of the SCO, everything that so many of us recognise as his music was there in this performance.
Franz Krommer (1759 – 1831) is a name unfamiliar to me so it came as a bit of a surprise to find out just how popular the music of this contemporary of Beethoven was during his lifetime. His fascination with the then relatively new instrument the clarinet is represented in this work, his Concerto No 1 in E-flat for two Clarinets, Op 35. The fact that both Krommer and Beethoven seem to share some similarities in parts of their music should have come as no surprise as both had support from the same wealthy aristocrat.
This was of course created to highlight the then relatively new sounds of the clarinet, and it provided a perfect space for Maximiliano Martín and William Stafford to bring Krommer’s work for this instrument to life again after too long in the shadows.
The final work tonight was by another composer that was new to me, Paul Wranitzky (1756-1806) and it is easy to understand from his Symphony in D, Op 36, performed tonight why his music was so popular with the Viennese public in his lifetime. This is classic energetic music with a trumpet fanfare that was so in vogue at the time. One thing is certain, and that is that Paul Wranitzky knew exactly what his public wanted to hear and the SCO took us all back to that time and place with their lively performance tonight.
There was also a not on the programme Mozart surprise tonight, but just in case this is still to be part of the forthcoming Glasgow concert, I am not going to tell you about it – sorry.
The end, then, of another year of music with the SCO, and as always it has been a pleasure to review their concerts, and along the way greatly expanded my listened to music with the many new composers and their works that they have brought to my attention in 2024.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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