SCO & SCO Chorus, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review: 'captivating'
SCO principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev gave bracing, nimble readings of two very different Glorias at the Usher Hall, writes David Kettle
SCO & SCO Chorus, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★
If there really is anyone up there listening, they must have been delighted with not one but two substantial hymns of praise to their glory in a single evening. More importantly, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and SCO Chorus’s pairing of Poulenc’s 20th-century Gloria and Vivaldi’s early 18th-century Gloria was a deeply rewarding experience for Usher Hall listeners too: the two pieces’ respective musical languages might have sounded just as distant from each other as they were, but they shared joy, energy and vitality.
That was certainly the case in the bracing, nimble readings from SCO principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who hammered hell out of his harpsichord in Vivaldi’s celebratory opening movement, but found a suitably suave sensibility for Poulenc’s sophisticated offering. Indeed, Emelyanychev had a winning way with the French composer’s beguiling mix of mischief and sentimentality, playing it straight rather than sarcastically, with results that were warm, sincere and authentic.
Soprano Anna Dennis delivered some beautifully shaped silvery solos, and returned as an immaculate vocal match with fellow soprano Rachel Redmond in Vivaldi’s Gloria, though countertenor Alberto Miguélez Rouco’s pronounced, tremulous vibrato proved somewhat distracting in his two solo movements.
The SCO Chorus occupied the chorus seats behind the Orchestra for the Poulenc, then reappeared in an on-stage horseshoe around the instrumentalists for the Vivaldi after the interval – a nice touch, visually and sonically, that brought the earlier composer’s intertwining lines into sharp focus.
They were on characteristically excellent form – agile, precise, beautifully blended – but there was a disconcerting disconnect between their somewhat restrained, soft-edged singing and Emelyanychev’s bright, vivid, rhythmically crisp orchestra, as though the choral singers had been told to keep it down a bit. Nonetheless, it was a captivating evening, launched with more Poulenc: the semi-serious end-of-war Sinfonietta, given a bright, airy account by Emelyanychev, who didn’t overlook the piece’s boisterous fairground antics either.
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