SCO Music of the Imagination Queen's Hall 11th April 2024 Review
SCO Music of the Imagination at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was exactly what the programme title told us, a carefully curated selection of music from the 18th to 21st centuries with two main connective themes, time and the very events or objects which inspire a composer’s imagination to create their music.
Time is everything in music, whether that be the literal musical time of any piece of work or the chronological time in which it was created. Unlike our understanding of time as something in physics that only moves in a forward direction (as far as we know so far), time for any musician/composer is circular as musical ideas of the past are picked up and re-interpreted by composers from a later time and they themselves often leave ideas for future generations of creatives to work on in their own fashion. Nothing in music is ever a fixed point in time, nothing exists separately from anything that has gone before.
To prove this point, works from three great figures in classical music, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are interspersed with three contemporary composers, Woolrich, Adès and Weir.
Starting off our journey of imagination tonight was Franz Joseph Haydn and Symphony No 64 “Tempora Mutantur” (“The Times Change”) from 1773-1775. As always, Haydn is teasing his listener with often very subtle musical games, and as so often in his work there are overtones of a darkness that is somewhere deep in his own emotional self that is counterbalanced with a joyous expression of life. This is a work full of musical contrast, but the second movement is perhaps one of the strangest of the evening as his use of silence often creates the illusion that time itself, and certainly this piece, is stopping, but of course neither of these things happen and the musical master continues to play his creative games with us all until he is ready to say when this work ends.
Following on from Haydn, and in some places possibly drawing inspiration from him, contemporary composer John Woolrich and his 1991 work “The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night”. The main creative inspiration for this work is Mozart and this music is at its heart a playful homage to him. The source for this music is often unfinished work of musical sketches by Mozart and although some years before the widespread internet streaming of music, Woolrich has somehow captured how so many of us now listen to music, often like magpies, picking away at things, as our attention spans seem to get less and less and little fragments of work are often heard one after the other. It is also somehow comforting to know that even the genius of Mozart played with ideas, discarding them, never finishing them, or perhaps just got bored with an idea before moving onto something else.
Closing the first half of this evening’s music was work from the master himself, and Mozart “Concert Aria Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio”, from 1783. In many ways, this is very much a work of its time, giving Belgian soprano Emma Posman the opportunity to display her vocal talents in a piece that must have presented many challenges as Mozart had the ability to more than test any singer. In this case, however, the original singer was Mozart’s sister-in-law Aloysia Weber, sister of his wife Constanze and possibly even his first true love.
Opening the second half of this evening’s music was a work commissioned and presented by SCO, Thomas Adès (also conductor tonight) “The Origin of the Harp” (New version for orchestra - World Premiere). This work was originally written in 1994 for a chamber ensemble of ten players and takes its inspiration from a painting in the Manchester City Art Gallery by Daniel Maclise (1806-70) which itself takes its inspiration from Celtic legends. Like the painting itself, the harp is suggested but not featured.
Art is again the inspiration for the next piece, a 1954 work from Judith Weir, “Heroic Strokes of the Bow”. This time, however, the work is from one of the great figures of 20th century modern art, Paul Klee.
Finishing off this evening’s music of the imagination was music from Beethoven’s only musical score for a ballet, “Creatures of Prometheus” – Overture, Adagio and Finale, and it is a truly outstanding work of creativity. Written in 1801, this work for me reaches forward in time as its echoes and musical ideas can be heard 100 years later (and more) in many of the most popular ballet scores of all time.
In all, another evening of fine music with many surprises from Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Time is everything in music, whether that be the literal musical time of any piece of work or the chronological time in which it was created. Unlike our understanding of time as something in physics that only moves in a forward direction (as far as we know so far), time for any musician/composer is circular as musical ideas of the past are picked up and re-interpreted by composers from a later time and they themselves often leave ideas for future generations of creatives to work on in their own fashion. Nothing in music is ever a fixed point in time, nothing exists separately from anything that has gone before.
To prove this point, works from three great figures in classical music, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are interspersed with three contemporary composers, Woolrich, Adès and Weir.
Starting off our journey of imagination tonight was Franz Joseph Haydn and Symphony No 64 “Tempora Mutantur” (“The Times Change”) from 1773-1775. As always, Haydn is teasing his listener with often very subtle musical games, and as so often in his work there are overtones of a darkness that is somewhere deep in his own emotional self that is counterbalanced with a joyous expression of life. This is a work full of musical contrast, but the second movement is perhaps one of the strangest of the evening as his use of silence often creates the illusion that time itself, and certainly this piece, is stopping, but of course neither of these things happen and the musical master continues to play his creative games with us all until he is ready to say when this work ends.
Following on from Haydn, and in some places possibly drawing inspiration from him, contemporary composer John Woolrich and his 1991 work “The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night”. The main creative inspiration for this work is Mozart and this music is at its heart a playful homage to him. The source for this music is often unfinished work of musical sketches by Mozart and although some years before the widespread internet streaming of music, Woolrich has somehow captured how so many of us now listen to music, often like magpies, picking away at things, as our attention spans seem to get less and less and little fragments of work are often heard one after the other. It is also somehow comforting to know that even the genius of Mozart played with ideas, discarding them, never finishing them, or perhaps just got bored with an idea before moving onto something else.
Closing the first half of this evening’s music was work from the master himself, and Mozart “Concert Aria Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio”, from 1783. In many ways, this is very much a work of its time, giving Belgian soprano Emma Posman the opportunity to display her vocal talents in a piece that must have presented many challenges as Mozart had the ability to more than test any singer. In this case, however, the original singer was Mozart’s sister-in-law Aloysia Weber, sister of his wife Constanze and possibly even his first true love.
Opening the second half of this evening’s music was a work commissioned and presented by SCO, Thomas Adès (also conductor tonight) “The Origin of the Harp” (New version for orchestra - World Premiere). This work was originally written in 1994 for a chamber ensemble of ten players and takes its inspiration from a painting in the Manchester City Art Gallery by Daniel Maclise (1806-70) which itself takes its inspiration from Celtic legends. Like the painting itself, the harp is suggested but not featured.
Art is again the inspiration for the next piece, a 1954 work from Judith Weir, “Heroic Strokes of the Bow”. This time, however, the work is from one of the great figures of 20th century modern art, Paul Klee.
Finishing off this evening’s music of the imagination was music from Beethoven’s only musical score for a ballet, “Creatures of Prometheus” – Overture, Adagio and Finale, and it is a truly outstanding work of creativity. Written in 1801, this work for me reaches forward in time as its echoes and musical ideas can be heard 100 years later (and more) in many of the most popular ballet scores of all time.
In all, another evening of fine music with many surprises from Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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