EIF reviews: Cosi Fan Tutte | Stefan Dohr and Friends

OPERA

Così Fan Tutte *****

Usher Hall

Whoever put together the exceptional array of talents for this fabulous concert performance of Mozart and Da Ponte’s timeless opera buffa Così Fan Tutte deserves a medal. It was a match made in heaven.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and chorus powered by their exuberant principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, along with a sensational line up of singers and some inspired staging, explored the fickleness of relationships with humour and panache. All women are like that, as the title suggests, could equally apply to men here.

The vocal blend was superb with soprano Golda Schultz (Fiordiligi) initially paired with baritone Huw Montague Rendall (Guglielmo) while mezzo Angela Brower as her sister Dorabella and tenor Josh Lovell (Ferrando) played the other couple. And the swapping of partners was seamless and touching as Fiordiligi fought to resist temptation unlike the more adventurous Dorabella. Guglielmo’s smugness was short-lived as Fiordiligi eventually caves in to her desires and agrees to the double wedding. Not only did they sing superbly but their comic timing was spot on. But their arch manipulators - the outstanding Christopher Maltman as the devious philosopher Don Alfonso and brilliant Hera Hyesang Park as the worldy wise chamber maid Despina – had the lion’s share of the laughs.

Emelyanychev, conducting from the fortepiano – providing a more mellow accompaniment than the usual harpsichord – was also in on the action, complicit in various funny asides with each of the characters. His direction of the orchestra, singers and excellent chorus, directed by Gregory Batsleer, was magnificent. From the crisp and brisk overture he elicited a perfectly balanced sound from the musicians who played a winning combination of modern and period instruments.

With the music front and centre and performances as thrilling and captivating as this, the concert opera is giving fully staged productions a run for their money. 

Susan Nickalls

MUSIC

Stefan Dohr and Friends ****

Queen's Hall   

Ligeti's horn trio is all the more astonishing given that he never heard any of the music of his youth - Schoenberg, Webern, even late Bartok - until he was over 30 and Stalin had died. He had studied scores, but never experienced the sound world which had shaken ear-trembling Europe to its roots.

The trio, played magnificently and with riotous elan by Stefan Dohr, Caroline Widman and Denes Varjon, erupts with a radical new language even for this fiercely individual composer. Dohr's spoken introduction prepared the audience for chaos, but in fact the work - which races past like a fractured landscape seen at speed through a window - has a conventional plan. Four movements, repeating themes and a passacaglia ending, perhaps a tribute to Brahms, its dedicatee. The sounds, however, are entirely Ligeti's own: caustic, shining, rude and startling.

It was framed here by two Beethoven sonatas, the first for piano and horn where the pitch between keyboard and Dohr was uncomfortable (German tuning is higher that UK). Dohr's great gleaming Rolex watch-like instrument overwhelmed music written for a far simpler piece of tubing. But in an immaculate, gleaming Opus 3, No 2 for violin, power and simplicity was lit by sudden bursts into song.

Dohr's greatness returned in absolute glory in the wonderful stately Brahms trio for horn, violin and piano; a triumphant, thrilling and important performance with the three instruments finding balance between soloistic and seamless blend. Throughout this beautifully devised programme, though, perhaps the musical glue was Varjon's piano playing, virtuosic, personal and compelling.

Mary Miller