Scottish Ensemble Concerts by Candlelight Greyfriars Kirk Edinburgh 10th December 2024 Review
Scottish Ensemble Concerts by Candlelight at Greyfriars Kirk Edinburgh tonight was evidence that these have obviously become a very regular fixture on many people’s festive calendar as tonight was pretty much a sold out event.
There is always a musical inquisitiveness to any programme of music by Scottish Ensemble, and tonight there was everything from the always safe musical ground of JS Bach to the always adventurous and often challenging sounds of Philip Glass.
This programme of music opened and closed with work from Latvian Composer Pēteris Vasks, and Movement 1 and 4 respectively from “Musica Adventus”. These two movements acted almost as musical bookends to an evening of music that featured works from other modern composers who were very different in their approach to music.
Often nature was the source of inspiration for these works (Caroline Shaw – Stem From The Evergreen) while composers chose to weave the ancient in with the modern (Olli Mustonen). Sometimes this created music which was expansive in its approach whilst at the other extreme end of this was work from minimalist composer Arvo Pärt.
Without doubt though, one of the most interesting uses of sounds and physical space tonight came from a newly commissioned work for Concerts by Candlelight - Hannah Kendall “And At Pains to Temper the Light”. Described by Jonathan Morton (SE artistic director/violin 1) as a soundscape into another world, this was as accurate a description as you could get of what we were all about to hear. To allow us in and out of this soundscape were two musical doors - Kaiji Saariaho Movement 3 from “Sept Papillons (Seven Butterflies)” which was performed twice.
To some people, “And At Pains to Temper the Light” might not even meet their definition of what music, or the instruments played tonight, should sound like as it followed none of the conventional structures of harmony, melody and counterpoint all taking their musical positions from a fixed musical key. Instead this was a pure exploration of sound and the many possibilities of where that sound can take a person.
In many ways though, this unconventional work was the most conventional of all tonight, particularly when members of the ensemble walked amongst the audience whilst playing. In an historic church like Greyfriars Kirk this was a reminder of how in old churches across the world, the use of sound, albeit plainsong, choral music, hymns, or even spoken prayers were all part of an experience to connect the congregation to a space beyond what they could see and touch in their normal daily lives.
It was appropriate that, in a church, one of the great masters of church music was part of the evening and many people in tonight’s audience would have been familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Son of God Is Coming”. Equally familiar to many would have been Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arr. Jonathan Morton “Adagio from Serenade in Bb”. Originally composed for wind instruments, this arrangement for strings had perhaps a little darker overtone, but it worked so well in this physical space.
There was a short encore, and if this is being repeated at other concerts I do not want to give too much away. All I will say is that this work from the 1500s is remarkable for how forward thinking it was musically and even today, some 500 years later, it still sounded fresh and new.
As often from Scottish Ensemble, this was a truly eclectic programme of music that highlighted just how skilled their individual and combined talents are.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There is always a musical inquisitiveness to any programme of music by Scottish Ensemble, and tonight there was everything from the always safe musical ground of JS Bach to the always adventurous and often challenging sounds of Philip Glass.
This programme of music opened and closed with work from Latvian Composer Pēteris Vasks, and Movement 1 and 4 respectively from “Musica Adventus”. These two movements acted almost as musical bookends to an evening of music that featured works from other modern composers who were very different in their approach to music.
Often nature was the source of inspiration for these works (Caroline Shaw – Stem From The Evergreen) while composers chose to weave the ancient in with the modern (Olli Mustonen). Sometimes this created music which was expansive in its approach whilst at the other extreme end of this was work from minimalist composer Arvo Pärt.
Without doubt though, one of the most interesting uses of sounds and physical space tonight came from a newly commissioned work for Concerts by Candlelight - Hannah Kendall “And At Pains to Temper the Light”. Described by Jonathan Morton (SE artistic director/violin 1) as a soundscape into another world, this was as accurate a description as you could get of what we were all about to hear. To allow us in and out of this soundscape were two musical doors - Kaiji Saariaho Movement 3 from “Sept Papillons (Seven Butterflies)” which was performed twice.
To some people, “And At Pains to Temper the Light” might not even meet their definition of what music, or the instruments played tonight, should sound like as it followed none of the conventional structures of harmony, melody and counterpoint all taking their musical positions from a fixed musical key. Instead this was a pure exploration of sound and the many possibilities of where that sound can take a person.
In many ways though, this unconventional work was the most conventional of all tonight, particularly when members of the ensemble walked amongst the audience whilst playing. In an historic church like Greyfriars Kirk this was a reminder of how in old churches across the world, the use of sound, albeit plainsong, choral music, hymns, or even spoken prayers were all part of an experience to connect the congregation to a space beyond what they could see and touch in their normal daily lives.
It was appropriate that, in a church, one of the great masters of church music was part of the evening and many people in tonight’s audience would have been familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Son of God Is Coming”. Equally familiar to many would have been Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arr. Jonathan Morton “Adagio from Serenade in Bb”. Originally composed for wind instruments, this arrangement for strings had perhaps a little darker overtone, but it worked so well in this physical space.
There was a short encore, and if this is being repeated at other concerts I do not want to give too much away. All I will say is that this work from the 1500s is remarkable for how forward thinking it was musically and even today, some 500 years later, it still sounded fresh and new.
As often from Scottish Ensemble, this was a truly eclectic programme of music that highlighted just how skilled their individual and combined talents are.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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