Scottish Ensemble Concerts for A Summer's Night National Museum Scotland Edinburgh 22nd June 2023 Review
Scottish Ensemble Concerts For a Summer’s Night are back again, and the classic Victorian cast iron central hall of the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street Edinburgh was the perfect venue for this event.
Whether your tastes be more classical orientated with Frédéric Chopin and Camille Saint-Saëns, a little more jazz orientated with Chick Corea or the musical dancing fireworks of Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst”, on this bright and warm Edinburgh evening the building’s glass roof let the light fill this large open space making a perfect complement to this carefully curated programme of music that covered a little of everything.
Any concert by Scottish Ensemble is, for me, always a combination of many things, but perhaps the two most important are discovering with their performances both new music, and new information about composers and their works, and as always, Jonathan Morton (violinist and Artistic Director & Leader) manages to present the facts in a short but very clear manner. Tonight this information was kept to a minimum and the music was left to speak for itself, but it was still enlightening to discover that handing down of musical knowledge and ideas from teacher to student in three works from Camille Saint-Saëns (Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso) to Gabriel Fauré (Après Un Rêve) then to Nadia Boulanger (Sans vitesse et à l’aise). For me, the works of Camille Saint-Saëns are all too often overlooked in favour of other composers and it is always a pleasure to hear any of his music performed.
Each of the above works has its own colours and emotions, and with Jonathan Morton’s performance on violin on “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” you certainly can feel that of the Spanish influences that Saint-Saëns was working with, and at times we seemed to be only a heartbeat or two away from the rhythms of Gypsy Jazz music. A special mention also needs to go to Alison Lawrance for her cello work on “Après Un Rêve”.
Out of all the instruments in an orchestra, and out of all the string instruments, it is always the double bass that catches my imagination as it is the one that so easily moves into jazz ensembles and also provided the rhythm for early 1950s rock’n’roll and rockabilly music. Tonight with arrangements of music by jazz fusion legend Chick Corea that fluidity of cross over into different musical styles could so clearly be heard by Diane Clark’s performance on double bass.
A fine summer’s evening for the weather and the chance to celebrate with Scottish Ensemble exactly what their advertising promised “A musical celebration of the summer solstice”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Whether your tastes be more classical orientated with Frédéric Chopin and Camille Saint-Saëns, a little more jazz orientated with Chick Corea or the musical dancing fireworks of Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst”, on this bright and warm Edinburgh evening the building’s glass roof let the light fill this large open space making a perfect complement to this carefully curated programme of music that covered a little of everything.
Any concert by Scottish Ensemble is, for me, always a combination of many things, but perhaps the two most important are discovering with their performances both new music, and new information about composers and their works, and as always, Jonathan Morton (violinist and Artistic Director & Leader) manages to present the facts in a short but very clear manner. Tonight this information was kept to a minimum and the music was left to speak for itself, but it was still enlightening to discover that handing down of musical knowledge and ideas from teacher to student in three works from Camille Saint-Saëns (Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso) to Gabriel Fauré (Après Un Rêve) then to Nadia Boulanger (Sans vitesse et à l’aise). For me, the works of Camille Saint-Saëns are all too often overlooked in favour of other composers and it is always a pleasure to hear any of his music performed.
Each of the above works has its own colours and emotions, and with Jonathan Morton’s performance on violin on “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” you certainly can feel that of the Spanish influences that Saint-Saëns was working with, and at times we seemed to be only a heartbeat or two away from the rhythms of Gypsy Jazz music. A special mention also needs to go to Alison Lawrance for her cello work on “Après Un Rêve”.
Out of all the instruments in an orchestra, and out of all the string instruments, it is always the double bass that catches my imagination as it is the one that so easily moves into jazz ensembles and also provided the rhythm for early 1950s rock’n’roll and rockabilly music. Tonight with arrangements of music by jazz fusion legend Chick Corea that fluidity of cross over into different musical styles could so clearly be heard by Diane Clark’s performance on double bass.
A fine summer’s evening for the weather and the chance to celebrate with Scottish Ensemble exactly what their advertising promised “A musical celebration of the summer solstice”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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