SCO Grieg Piano Concerto Eric Lu Usher Hall Edinburgh 7th November 2024 Review
SCO Grieg Piano concerto at the Usher Hall was in many ways a continuation of last week’s Nordic Music Days Festival 2024 concert as the composers were all from Nordic Countries.
The opening work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi, Lucioles (Fireflies) from 2011 has a performance duration of 10 minutes, but this is more than enough for a very specific image and event to be told in music.
Andrea Tarrodi credits the inspiration for this work to come from French writer and Haiku (a very specific form of Japanese verse) specialist, François JJ Ribes and his precise depiction of a specific event
Lucioles - Fireflies
By the lily leaves
the fireflies anchor
the lake is illuminated
Here through music and the very specific and often sparing use of orchestral instrumentation, Tarrodi captures that imagery, soundscape and feeling of waiting and watching as the fireflies arrive, put on their spectacular show and then depart, leaving everything as still as it was before their arrival.
The second work this evening and the title of this concert, Grieg Piano Concerto, saw the technical and interpretive skills of one of the fast rising stars of piano recitals, Massachusetts-born Eric Lu, breathe life, along with the SCO orchestra, into one of the most popular works in the classical music repertoire. Even if you do not think that you know this work, you will probably recognise it. That run from the top to the bottom of the keyboard is so identifiable.
Edvard Grieg was only 24 years old when he wrote this masterpiece and his intention was obviously to make an impression on his peers and audiences, and he certainly did that. In fact, over 150 years from its premiere performance in Copenhagen in 1863, he is still making an impression and a very bold statement about what this, the only piano concerto that he ever completed, was capable of expressing in both musical ideas and interpretive ideas.
For this work Grieg is fusing the classical musical structures of his time with his love for the folk music of his native Norway. Unlike many other classical composers before him who had also incorporated their own countries’ native folk music into their works, Grieg chose not to take such an obvious approach, instead adding often discreet compositional elements of folk music into this work, and the end result is always wonderful to listen to.
To perform this music properly though, you need musicians who are capable of expressing the full emotions and soundscape that Grieg was expressing in his work and tonight, Eric Lu and the SCO were more than capable of this task.
From Norway to Finland now and perhaps one of the most iconic of that nation’s composers, Jean Sibelius. This work, Symphony No 5, was a commission from the government of Finland to the composer in celebration of his 50th birthday and as with many of his other works, the landscape and natural world of Finland are the sources of inspiration once again for Sibelius. Perhaps the most famous part of this work is his recreation of the euphoria of one day seeing 16 swans circling in the skies above him and their arrival represented by the sound of French horns.
To some extent, Sibelius created this work on safe ground. Although he was working to establish many of the elements of a more modernist composer into his work (noticeable in his fourth symphony), in this work he has mellowed a little in this approach. Also a fierce nationalist, this work has to be considered in relation that it was written some two years before Finland’s declaration of independence from the Russian Empire in 1917. This work was after all a government commission and birthday present.
Despite the many political problems that Finland was undergoing at this time, Sibelius Symphony No 5 is a work of remarkable creativity and full of a feeling of being uplifted to something far bigger than one’s self. It is in many ways an almost spiritual experience just to listen to it being performed.
Adding much to the expressive interpretation of all of the music performed tonight with his insight across all performances, Ryan Bancroft, Conductor.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The opening work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi, Lucioles (Fireflies) from 2011 has a performance duration of 10 minutes, but this is more than enough for a very specific image and event to be told in music.
Andrea Tarrodi credits the inspiration for this work to come from French writer and Haiku (a very specific form of Japanese verse) specialist, François JJ Ribes and his precise depiction of a specific event
Lucioles - Fireflies
By the lily leaves
the fireflies anchor
the lake is illuminated
Here through music and the very specific and often sparing use of orchestral instrumentation, Tarrodi captures that imagery, soundscape and feeling of waiting and watching as the fireflies arrive, put on their spectacular show and then depart, leaving everything as still as it was before their arrival.
The second work this evening and the title of this concert, Grieg Piano Concerto, saw the technical and interpretive skills of one of the fast rising stars of piano recitals, Massachusetts-born Eric Lu, breathe life, along with the SCO orchestra, into one of the most popular works in the classical music repertoire. Even if you do not think that you know this work, you will probably recognise it. That run from the top to the bottom of the keyboard is so identifiable.
Edvard Grieg was only 24 years old when he wrote this masterpiece and his intention was obviously to make an impression on his peers and audiences, and he certainly did that. In fact, over 150 years from its premiere performance in Copenhagen in 1863, he is still making an impression and a very bold statement about what this, the only piano concerto that he ever completed, was capable of expressing in both musical ideas and interpretive ideas.
For this work Grieg is fusing the classical musical structures of his time with his love for the folk music of his native Norway. Unlike many other classical composers before him who had also incorporated their own countries’ native folk music into their works, Grieg chose not to take such an obvious approach, instead adding often discreet compositional elements of folk music into this work, and the end result is always wonderful to listen to.
To perform this music properly though, you need musicians who are capable of expressing the full emotions and soundscape that Grieg was expressing in his work and tonight, Eric Lu and the SCO were more than capable of this task.
From Norway to Finland now and perhaps one of the most iconic of that nation’s composers, Jean Sibelius. This work, Symphony No 5, was a commission from the government of Finland to the composer in celebration of his 50th birthday and as with many of his other works, the landscape and natural world of Finland are the sources of inspiration once again for Sibelius. Perhaps the most famous part of this work is his recreation of the euphoria of one day seeing 16 swans circling in the skies above him and their arrival represented by the sound of French horns.
To some extent, Sibelius created this work on safe ground. Although he was working to establish many of the elements of a more modernist composer into his work (noticeable in his fourth symphony), in this work he has mellowed a little in this approach. Also a fierce nationalist, this work has to be considered in relation that it was written some two years before Finland’s declaration of independence from the Russian Empire in 1917. This work was after all a government commission and birthday present.
Despite the many political problems that Finland was undergoing at this time, Sibelius Symphony No 5 is a work of remarkable creativity and full of a feeling of being uplifted to something far bigger than one’s self. It is in many ways an almost spiritual experience just to listen to it being performed.
Adding much to the expressive interpretation of all of the music performed tonight with his insight across all performances, Ryan Bancroft, Conductor.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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