SCO & Peter Whelan, Edinburgh review: 'full of festive spirit'
This was a joyful, celebratory afternoon of music from Peter Whelan and the SCO, writes David Kettle
SCO & Peter Whelan, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★
When is a festive concert not a festive concert? Well, it all depends on what you mean by festive. There was nothing remotely Christmassy about the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s all-Mozart afternoon, but plenty that was jolly, brightly coloured, exciting, even a bit magical.
That sense of festivity was down not just to the main music itself – the exuberant, often overtly humorous “Posthorn” Serenade, which no doubt did a good job of entertaining Salzburg’s graduating students in 1779. It was also conjured by director/fortepianist Peter Whelan’s canny concept of mixing up the Serenade’s seven movements with a selection of Mozart opera arias – hardly a historically informed decision, perhaps, but surely one with plenty of more general precedent in Mozart galas down the ages. The result, though, was far from simply a “best-of” selection box of catchy Mozart tunes. It made for a cleverly conceived arch of musical moods and textures, sometimes run tantalisingly (and convincingly) together as if the music had always been meant to be heard this way.
Irish mezzo Tara Erraught was a gloriously versatile soloist, forthright and focused in Parto, parto from La clemenza di Tito (interweaving with a wonderfully supple clarinet line from SCO principal Maximiliano Martín), and touchingly vulnerable in Dove sono from The Marriage of Figaro.
Whelan’s own vivid, vigorous direction – he virtually embodied the moods he was aiming to generate – surely owed a lot to the opera house even in the purely instrumental Serenade, and he had brilliantly characterful support from the SCO players, notably principal flautist André Cebrián and oboist Yann-Joseph Thenet in a rather sublime Concertante movement.
With a Der Schauspieldirektor Overture that exploded into life then scampered round the stage like an excitable puppy, it was a joyful, celebratory afternoon of music – without a single seasonable bauble in sight, perhaps, but full of festive spirit all the same.
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