SCO Tchaikovsky's Fifth Queen's Hall Edinburgh 4th May 2023 Review
SCO Tchaikovsky’s Fifth at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight gave us not only one of the most popular symphonies in music, but also an insight via this music into the fears and insecurities of the composer himself. Tchaikovsky’s famous mood swings are clear for all to hear as four very different movements take us on a journey of very different emotions and colours, and at times the dramatic changes between them can be a sudden jolt to the listener. We are given an insight into the very thoughts of Tchaikovsky, his ongoing interest, and at times almost belief that fate is always there in the background, somehow moving him in unstoppable directions to an inevitable resolution.
There is an opening darkness here in the first movement, almost a feeling of fate, even death approaching in a coming funeral procession, but by the time we reach the second movement, beautiful strings and a wonderful horn melody change our moods with ease. The horn melody may be familiar in parts to many people as John Denver is said to have been inspired by it when writing his famous 1970s “Annie’s Song”. If you feel like a brief waltz, then the third movement has this to offer too, whilst the final movement is surprisingly bright in parts and a counterbalance to this work’s darker opening.
Despite all of this amazing music and its very positive reception by audiences on its premiere, Tchaikovsky was not happy with it; he considered the ending to be weak and overall the work to be a failure. I think many composers out there, at any time in history, would be happy to ever achieve something even close to what Tchaikovsky would consider a failure.
This evening’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth was, however, a re-arrangement of this work specifically for a chamber orchestra by George Morton (2017) with a focus on individual woodwinds, a small string and brass section. This re-focus on specific instruments was designed to allow us to explore in more detail some of the colours and sounds of the original work, and there is also a key change. This work is in the key of C minor and the original was in the Key of E minor.
Self-doubt seems to be a common theme with composers, and the opening work of this evening’s programme, Sibelius’ The Tempest Suite No 2 again raises the question of why creative people so often have so little faith, so much insecurity in their own abilities.
The Tempest was originally composed as incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest, by Jean Sibelius. The work was composed in 1925–26 and the full scale version consists of 34 separate numbers. From this large work, two smaller suites of music were derived and this one is the simpler, less lavish one that suits a chamber orchestra so well.
It is hard to imagine upon hearing this work that Sibelius was so paralysed by his own self-criticism that he wrote no more major works during the last 30 years of his life.
If anyone thinks that they know what to expect to hear when coming to a concert by SCO, or any classical music performance, then a new work getting its UK premiere, by contemporary composer Cassandra Miller should be a surprise. This new work, I cannot love without trembling (Viola Concerto), performed by internationally acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is more of an adventure into a sound landscape than the more familiar way that other music on this programme is constructed. The resulting combination of Cassandra Miller and Lawrence Power takes this work not only in many unexpected twists and turns, but unexpected colour and emotions. For some reason, I was often reminded of how The Velvet Underground would experiment with music in their early years when listening to this work tonight.
Bringing all of these very different and very distinctive works together with the SCO this evening was the expressive talents of John Storgårds, Conductor.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There is an opening darkness here in the first movement, almost a feeling of fate, even death approaching in a coming funeral procession, but by the time we reach the second movement, beautiful strings and a wonderful horn melody change our moods with ease. The horn melody may be familiar in parts to many people as John Denver is said to have been inspired by it when writing his famous 1970s “Annie’s Song”. If you feel like a brief waltz, then the third movement has this to offer too, whilst the final movement is surprisingly bright in parts and a counterbalance to this work’s darker opening.
Despite all of this amazing music and its very positive reception by audiences on its premiere, Tchaikovsky was not happy with it; he considered the ending to be weak and overall the work to be a failure. I think many composers out there, at any time in history, would be happy to ever achieve something even close to what Tchaikovsky would consider a failure.
This evening’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth was, however, a re-arrangement of this work specifically for a chamber orchestra by George Morton (2017) with a focus on individual woodwinds, a small string and brass section. This re-focus on specific instruments was designed to allow us to explore in more detail some of the colours and sounds of the original work, and there is also a key change. This work is in the key of C minor and the original was in the Key of E minor.
Self-doubt seems to be a common theme with composers, and the opening work of this evening’s programme, Sibelius’ The Tempest Suite No 2 again raises the question of why creative people so often have so little faith, so much insecurity in their own abilities.
The Tempest was originally composed as incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest, by Jean Sibelius. The work was composed in 1925–26 and the full scale version consists of 34 separate numbers. From this large work, two smaller suites of music were derived and this one is the simpler, less lavish one that suits a chamber orchestra so well.
It is hard to imagine upon hearing this work that Sibelius was so paralysed by his own self-criticism that he wrote no more major works during the last 30 years of his life.
If anyone thinks that they know what to expect to hear when coming to a concert by SCO, or any classical music performance, then a new work getting its UK premiere, by contemporary composer Cassandra Miller should be a surprise. This new work, I cannot love without trembling (Viola Concerto), performed by internationally acclaimed viola player Lawrence Power is more of an adventure into a sound landscape than the more familiar way that other music on this programme is constructed. The resulting combination of Cassandra Miller and Lawrence Power takes this work not only in many unexpected twists and turns, but unexpected colour and emotions. For some reason, I was often reminded of how The Velvet Underground would experiment with music in their early years when listening to this work tonight.
Bringing all of these very different and very distinctive works together with the SCO this evening was the expressive talents of John Storgårds, Conductor.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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