SCO Parabola Queen's Hall Edinburgh 13th March 2025 Review
SCO Parabola at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was part of the “New Dimensions Exploring New Sound Worlds” series of programmes and, as usual, this was an eclectic range of music. With a programme featuring heavily on 20th and 21st century composers, it may seem odd to some people that there was also music here from the 18th century, but nothing that the SCO performs is without a wider perspective of music and often there are connected threads between everything.
It actually makes sense to start this review at the end of this evening’s music and Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and his Symphony No 88 in G major (1787). My reasoning for this is that, although the music earlier in the evening from more modern and contemporary composers is in many cases stretching the boundaries of what we expect an orchestra, or an instrument to sound like, it is Haydn who had a large part in the development of what for a very long time was considered by many composers and their audiences to be a symphony or a concerto. So much of the music tonight, although exploring many new composition and sound possibilities, is at its heart still conforming to many of the basic structures that Haydn put in place in his work.
Like so many composers, here Haydn was working for a wealthy client when he wrote this work and, listening to it, there is no escaping the possibility that, like some immediately previous works, Symphony No 88 was targeted at the very important and potentially lucrative Parisian music market. Even in the late 1700s, Haydn knew his music listening demographic well and gave them exactly what they wanted with this mixture of military importance and simple get up and dance themes.
Going back to the start of this concert now, an interesting aspect of tonight’s programme was that when required Pekka Kuusisto and Simon Crawford-Phillips were either conducting or playing their respective instruments (violin and piano). The opening music, “BRITTEN Young Apollo” from 1939 is in its 10 minutes or so performance time, on the surface of it a trip into the world of Greek Gods and Olympians, but it is far more than that, it is a deeply personal work from Britten who gave the world a glimpse into his own desires. With Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano), and the SCO adding many layers of musical depth and emotion, there was no doubt tonight that over 80 years after its creation “Young Apollo” is as bold, flamboyant and innovative a work as ever.
Some 80 plus years separate “Young Apollo” from the next work performed this evening, THOMAS ADÈS Märchentänze (2020), and although this is often a very distinctive and contemporary soundscape, there is still something very traditional about many parts of this work as the sounds of English folk dance are never far away. Somehow these familiar sounds act as an anchor for the many unexpected paths that this music takes.
Equally as innovative in its creation of sound and approach to how a familiar instrument should sound was ANDRES Piano Concerto ‘The Blind Banister’ from 2015. Here it was not Haydn but Beethoven who was to be one of the creative focal points for this music, but having said that, this is not a “Beethovenesque” work, it is far more cleverly constructed than that.
Modern and contemporary composers in this programme are creating soundscapes that Haydn and his audiences would possibly never have considered to be music and SALLY BEAMISH Whitescape (2000) perhaps pushes this musical structure further than any other work tonight, and the end product is a soundscape that many people might not expect to hear from an orchestra like the SCO, and that is always a good thing, to be constantly innovative and surprising.
If there is one stark difference between Haydn and some of the other works performed this evening it is the use of percussion. In Symphony 88 it is sparingly used, but on other works, percussionists Louise Lewis Goodwin, Jack Fawcett and Paul Stoneman had a very busy evening. In particular, with most of the instruments being at the back of the orchestra in a straight line, Louise Lewis Goodwin had a lot of ground to literally cover this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
It actually makes sense to start this review at the end of this evening’s music and Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and his Symphony No 88 in G major (1787). My reasoning for this is that, although the music earlier in the evening from more modern and contemporary composers is in many cases stretching the boundaries of what we expect an orchestra, or an instrument to sound like, it is Haydn who had a large part in the development of what for a very long time was considered by many composers and their audiences to be a symphony or a concerto. So much of the music tonight, although exploring many new composition and sound possibilities, is at its heart still conforming to many of the basic structures that Haydn put in place in his work.
Like so many composers, here Haydn was working for a wealthy client when he wrote this work and, listening to it, there is no escaping the possibility that, like some immediately previous works, Symphony No 88 was targeted at the very important and potentially lucrative Parisian music market. Even in the late 1700s, Haydn knew his music listening demographic well and gave them exactly what they wanted with this mixture of military importance and simple get up and dance themes.
Going back to the start of this concert now, an interesting aspect of tonight’s programme was that when required Pekka Kuusisto and Simon Crawford-Phillips were either conducting or playing their respective instruments (violin and piano). The opening music, “BRITTEN Young Apollo” from 1939 is in its 10 minutes or so performance time, on the surface of it a trip into the world of Greek Gods and Olympians, but it is far more than that, it is a deeply personal work from Britten who gave the world a glimpse into his own desires. With Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano), and the SCO adding many layers of musical depth and emotion, there was no doubt tonight that over 80 years after its creation “Young Apollo” is as bold, flamboyant and innovative a work as ever.
Some 80 plus years separate “Young Apollo” from the next work performed this evening, THOMAS ADÈS Märchentänze (2020), and although this is often a very distinctive and contemporary soundscape, there is still something very traditional about many parts of this work as the sounds of English folk dance are never far away. Somehow these familiar sounds act as an anchor for the many unexpected paths that this music takes.
Equally as innovative in its creation of sound and approach to how a familiar instrument should sound was ANDRES Piano Concerto ‘The Blind Banister’ from 2015. Here it was not Haydn but Beethoven who was to be one of the creative focal points for this music, but having said that, this is not a “Beethovenesque” work, it is far more cleverly constructed than that.
Modern and contemporary composers in this programme are creating soundscapes that Haydn and his audiences would possibly never have considered to be music and SALLY BEAMISH Whitescape (2000) perhaps pushes this musical structure further than any other work tonight, and the end product is a soundscape that many people might not expect to hear from an orchestra like the SCO, and that is always a good thing, to be constantly innovative and surprising.
If there is one stark difference between Haydn and some of the other works performed this evening it is the use of percussion. In Symphony 88 it is sparingly used, but on other works, percussionists Louise Lewis Goodwin, Jack Fawcett and Paul Stoneman had a very busy evening. In particular, with most of the instruments being at the back of the orchestra in a straight line, Louise Lewis Goodwin had a lot of ground to literally cover this evening.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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