BBCSSO (live streaming), 22/10/2020
Stravinsky : Danses concertantes
Schreker : Kammersymphonie
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Mark Elder
To begin tonight's concert, the orchestra played Bach's 1st Brandenburg Concerto mostly standing, as has become quite popular with smaller ensembles, particularly in the Baroque repertory. They also played with the winds positioned in front of the strings, something that I found required a few minutes for my ears to 'tune in' to, as it created an odd effect in the balance of sound. Indeed, I found the first movement as a whole rather scrappy, with the horns too dominant. It all stabilised from the second movement onwards, but as a whole, this was a sedate, almost cautious performance, a bit short on vitality.
Fortunately, vitality was certainly not lacking in the Stravinsky. This generally seemed much more to the orchestra's - and the conductor's - taste than the Bach, really living up to its title. The mood was mercurial, the energy infectious, with a bounce that could be simply exuberant, or more slyly demure and teasing, but also not lacking in tenderness - the start of the third movement was particularly lovely. It's not really possible to toe-tap along to Stravinsky for very long, he delights in tripping you up with his intricate rhythms, but this came very, very close to it, and there was a delightful freshness and translucency of sound to the ensemble.
Although he died in 1934, just before Nazism rose to its fullest power, Schreker and his music fell victim to the Nazi purge of so-called "Entartete Musik" and their general anti-Semitism, and because by the time of his death, his music was regarded as somewhat passé, the effect of this purge on his memory and legacy was regrettably rather comprehensive. The operas, which are glorious hothouse flowers, darkly beautiful and maybe a little venomous, are reappearing, mainly on German and Austrian stages, but there's still very little of the concert music played. The Chamber Symphony, written in the middle of the First World War, draws some of its material from Die Gezeichneten, completed not long earlier - that shimmering, opalescent texture comes straight out of the opera - but Schreker achieves the same luxuriant effects with about a quarter of the size of orchestra. There's a touch of folk-music, country dances, in the central section, a little Mahlerian, an odd but charming contrast to the sophistication and complexity of the outer parts. This was lovely music, persuasively played, again with the transparency of texture (though with very different results) demonstrated in the Stravinsky, allowing the individual instruments to shine without unbalancing the whole. More, please!
[Next : 26th, maybe 25th October]