SCO Seek The Light Queen's Hall Edinburgh 10th March 2022 Review
Scottish Chamber Orchestra were at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight alongside Karine Polwart with “Seek The Light”, the second in the trilogy of “residency works” directed by Finnish violinist/composer Pekka Kuusisto. As anyone who was at this performance, or the earlier New York Counterpoint, will know, Pekka Kuusisto was unable due to personal circumstances to be here and violinist/composer Hugo Ticciato has stepped in at the last minute to direct this trilogy.
Karine Polwart is already well known to many people over the years as one of Scotland’s most popular folk/traditional performers and of course her highly successful Wind Resistance project. A little “hands up if you have been to hear Karine Polwart sing” question at the start of this show was a very visual indicator of just how many people had, and were here tonight to be with Karine, and of course SCO. This was a true crossover event, a sort of “when worlds collide” and anything that gets musicians from different musical backgrounds working together to create something new, (and often unexpected) and possibly introduces audiences to music that they might otherwise not experience gets my vote straight away.
“Seek The Light” is a true “musical changeling” and the new works for it are neatly spaced between existing works that you would think at first sight would have little or no connection to each other, but interestingly they do paint a cohesive picture and story in sound that seamlessly not only blends together, but actually feels like they should be together. The reason all of this works so well is of course down to the talents of the people involved - Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy (the creative team behind Wind Resistance), the direction of Hugo Ticciato and of course the individual and collective talents of SCO.
What is “Seek The Light” about though? Well many things that all too many of us take for granted; the wonder of the natural world around us and how small we as people are in the far grander schemes of the stars and the cosmos that we have no control over and how our primal instincts still leave us (like so many other life forms on this planet), seeking the light out of the darkness. This change from dark to light affects everyone and everything under the skies and collectively the carefully selected works of this programme all have that feeling about them and Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi in her 'Birds of Paradise' is a wonderful example of just how well music can become part of the backdrop to the wonders of nature itself.
This work is a homage to many things associated with dark to light, the seasons of nature, the migration of birds, glowing fireflies in the night and all of this taking place in a cycle of perpetual renewal under the timeless stars above, and maybe, just maybe, the ancient gods of old are still there above all of this watching and orchestrating everything below.
What” Seek The Light” also proves is that in the end, music is just that – music - and irrespective of what genre it is, where in the world it comes from, that all music is the same thing, an expression of its creators, a extension of their feelings and their reaction to everything and everyone that they experience in this world. Music simply tells an emotion or story (or both) in sounds and all music is nothing more than threads in a far larger and never ending tapestry, a bit like life, like nature, and the stars above us all.
The full performance programme for “Seek The Light” was
POLWART/MURPHY Seek the Light (World Premiere - Commissioned by the SCO) BEETHOVEN Symphony No 4 – Adagio
POLWART/MURPHY You Know Where You Are
TARRODI Birds of Paradise
POLWART/MURPHY The Night Mare
TÜÜR Insula Deserta
POLWART/MURPHY A Love Too Loud
VASKS Distant Light
POLWART/MURPHY Sleep Now
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH
Karine Polwart is already well known to many people over the years as one of Scotland’s most popular folk/traditional performers and of course her highly successful Wind Resistance project. A little “hands up if you have been to hear Karine Polwart sing” question at the start of this show was a very visual indicator of just how many people had, and were here tonight to be with Karine, and of course SCO. This was a true crossover event, a sort of “when worlds collide” and anything that gets musicians from different musical backgrounds working together to create something new, (and often unexpected) and possibly introduces audiences to music that they might otherwise not experience gets my vote straight away.
“Seek The Light” is a true “musical changeling” and the new works for it are neatly spaced between existing works that you would think at first sight would have little or no connection to each other, but interestingly they do paint a cohesive picture and story in sound that seamlessly not only blends together, but actually feels like they should be together. The reason all of this works so well is of course down to the talents of the people involved - Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy (the creative team behind Wind Resistance), the direction of Hugo Ticciato and of course the individual and collective talents of SCO.
What is “Seek The Light” about though? Well many things that all too many of us take for granted; the wonder of the natural world around us and how small we as people are in the far grander schemes of the stars and the cosmos that we have no control over and how our primal instincts still leave us (like so many other life forms on this planet), seeking the light out of the darkness. This change from dark to light affects everyone and everything under the skies and collectively the carefully selected works of this programme all have that feeling about them and Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi in her 'Birds of Paradise' is a wonderful example of just how well music can become part of the backdrop to the wonders of nature itself.
This work is a homage to many things associated with dark to light, the seasons of nature, the migration of birds, glowing fireflies in the night and all of this taking place in a cycle of perpetual renewal under the timeless stars above, and maybe, just maybe, the ancient gods of old are still there above all of this watching and orchestrating everything below.
What” Seek The Light” also proves is that in the end, music is just that – music - and irrespective of what genre it is, where in the world it comes from, that all music is the same thing, an expression of its creators, a extension of their feelings and their reaction to everything and everyone that they experience in this world. Music simply tells an emotion or story (or both) in sounds and all music is nothing more than threads in a far larger and never ending tapestry, a bit like life, like nature, and the stars above us all.
The full performance programme for “Seek The Light” was
POLWART/MURPHY Seek the Light (World Premiere - Commissioned by the SCO) BEETHOVEN Symphony No 4 – Adagio
POLWART/MURPHY You Know Where You Are
TARRODI Birds of Paradise
POLWART/MURPHY The Night Mare
TÜÜR Insula Deserta
POLWART/MURPHY A Love Too Loud
VASKS Distant Light
POLWART/MURPHY Sleep Now
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH