SCO Mozart's Flute Concerto Queen's Hall Edinburgh 16th February 2023 Review
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra brought another varied programme of music to the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh this evening with “Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 2 in D Major headlining the concert.
To start our evening’s music however, we move forward in time to the music of Claude Debussy and Le coin des enfants (Children’s Corner). This series of six short pieces is full of changes to delight people of any age, but these works, originally composed for piano between 1906 and 1908, were originally for one very special person– his daughter, Claude-Emma (known as "Chouchou").
Set to music to bring to life some of his daughter’s favourite toys, pastimes and interests it should be no surprise to anyone that the first work in this set, “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” is about a piano.
Although we are just into the early years of recorded music being available to play on cylinder discs and early 78 rpm records, we are still some years away from radio being an everyday source of music, and with “Children’s Corner” it is easy to imagine the delight that "Chouchou" must have felt when first hearing this music that her father had written for her. We also get glimpses here as the works develop over their period of writing just how fast "Chouchou" and her interests are developing as a young child.
The fact that we even have the second, and concert headline work, “Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 2” is a wonder in itself as it was, until 1920, thought that only one Mozart flute concerto had survived over the years. Thankfully, this missing work did indeed survive and you can just feel the vitality and love for life that its young composer had within him (Mozart was only 22 years old at the time of its writing in 1778). Listening and watching as the SCO, André Cebrián (Flute), and Joana Carneiro (Conductor) perform this work on stage it is obvious everyone on stage is also taking pleasure in performing this music some 250 years after its original creation. A big part of this feeling of just expecting there to be some sort of grand court of the period just through one of the doors of the Queen’s Hall was of course down to André Cebrián and his solo performance.
For the opening music of the second half of this evening’s music we move forward in time to the 20th century and the music of Stravinsky, who is now in the 1940s living in America. This work, “Danses Concertantes” was commissioned for a ballet (although Stravinsky would refute this fact in coming years). Even without the benefit of being able to watch the dancers perform on stage, it is easy to understand why his reputation for composing music for dance was so highly regarded, as this work is so full of different emotions and power.
The closing work in tonight’s programme returns us to Mozart, and again to ballet and “Overture and Ballet music, Idomeneo”, written in 1780/81 at a time when it was not expected for a composer like Mozart to also write music for the ballet segment within an opera.
Thankfully, Mozart seems to have often been single minded enough to get his own way when he thought it important enough, and it is hard to imagine this work being completed by anybody else’s hand (or genius).
Full concert programme
Joana Carneiro Conductor
André Cebrián Flute
DEBUSSY Le coin des enfants (Children’s corner)
MOZART Flute Concerto in D, K314
STRAVINSKY Danses Concertantes
MOZART Overture and Ballet music, Idomeneo
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
To start our evening’s music however, we move forward in time to the music of Claude Debussy and Le coin des enfants (Children’s Corner). This series of six short pieces is full of changes to delight people of any age, but these works, originally composed for piano between 1906 and 1908, were originally for one very special person– his daughter, Claude-Emma (known as "Chouchou").
Set to music to bring to life some of his daughter’s favourite toys, pastimes and interests it should be no surprise to anyone that the first work in this set, “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” is about a piano.
Although we are just into the early years of recorded music being available to play on cylinder discs and early 78 rpm records, we are still some years away from radio being an everyday source of music, and with “Children’s Corner” it is easy to imagine the delight that "Chouchou" must have felt when first hearing this music that her father had written for her. We also get glimpses here as the works develop over their period of writing just how fast "Chouchou" and her interests are developing as a young child.
The fact that we even have the second, and concert headline work, “Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 2” is a wonder in itself as it was, until 1920, thought that only one Mozart flute concerto had survived over the years. Thankfully, this missing work did indeed survive and you can just feel the vitality and love for life that its young composer had within him (Mozart was only 22 years old at the time of its writing in 1778). Listening and watching as the SCO, André Cebrián (Flute), and Joana Carneiro (Conductor) perform this work on stage it is obvious everyone on stage is also taking pleasure in performing this music some 250 years after its original creation. A big part of this feeling of just expecting there to be some sort of grand court of the period just through one of the doors of the Queen’s Hall was of course down to André Cebrián and his solo performance.
For the opening music of the second half of this evening’s music we move forward in time to the 20th century and the music of Stravinsky, who is now in the 1940s living in America. This work, “Danses Concertantes” was commissioned for a ballet (although Stravinsky would refute this fact in coming years). Even without the benefit of being able to watch the dancers perform on stage, it is easy to understand why his reputation for composing music for dance was so highly regarded, as this work is so full of different emotions and power.
The closing work in tonight’s programme returns us to Mozart, and again to ballet and “Overture and Ballet music, Idomeneo”, written in 1780/81 at a time when it was not expected for a composer like Mozart to also write music for the ballet segment within an opera.
Thankfully, Mozart seems to have often been single minded enough to get his own way when he thought it important enough, and it is hard to imagine this work being completed by anybody else’s hand (or genius).
Full concert programme
Joana Carneiro Conductor
André Cebrián Flute
DEBUSSY Le coin des enfants (Children’s corner)
MOZART Flute Concerto in D, K314
STRAVINSKY Danses Concertantes
MOZART Overture and Ballet music, Idomeneo
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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