SCO, 21/04/2023

Mayer : Symphony No. 1

Berlioz : Les nuits d'été (Karen Cargill, mezzo)

Beethoven : Symphony No. 8

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Chloé van Soeterstède

What little exposure I have had to the music of Emilie Mayer is largely thanks to the BBC's "Composer of the Week" programme, which devoted some time to her fairly recently.  Born in 1812, she was always interested in music, but it was only after the death of her father left her independently wealthy, at the age of 28, that she took up composition full time.  She became a student of Carl Loewe, who was her mentor until his death in 1869, by which time Mayer was well-established and successful in her own right.  Her output was quite prolific; 8 symphonies, 7 concert overtures, an opera, a substantial body of chamber music (notably cello sonatas) and a number of songs.  All of it, until quite recently, has been forgotten, overshadowed, as so many female composers have been, by the more famous male composers of their time.  

Certainly this first symphony, in C minor, is no trivial undertaking.  It's a solidly constructed work that lasts just over half-an-hour, unequivocally German Romantic in style, somewhere between Schubert and Schumann, leaning a little more towards the former, in my opinion.  What I found particularly interesting was the wind writing, which had a quite distinctive sound of its own, and something that therefore suited the SCO's excellent winds particularly well.  The symphony was created just six years after she began formal compositional studies, and I think that academic influences are still very strong in her work at this stage, she had yet to fully express her own voice, but it was certainly an accomplished work, and one that promised much.

Les nuits d'été was written in 1841, in its original voice and piano form, with the orchestral version, which is much better known, completed by 1856.  Berlioz was just nine years older than Mayer, but was a rather more experienced composer by this stage.  However, comparing Berlioz to Mayer is invidious.  Indeed, comparing Berlioz to any of his contemporaries is singularly difficult, because his musical imagination was so unique, and his mastery of orchestration to this day remains a model to be emulated.  Listening to the orchestra is as much a pleasure as listening to the singer in this cycle, and particularly so tonight, where van Soeterstède and the orchestra revelled in the many and varied colours and textures of the score.  

It was a fitting setting for the sumptuous voice of Karen Cargill, rich and powerful, yet confiding and intimate too.  The nature of her timbre changed from song to song, most strikingly going into "Sur les lagunes", where she brought out all her darkest tones for this lament, only to bring the voice back out into the light for the next songs.  The ravishing "Le spectre de la rose"- surely one of the greatest of all French mélodies - was spell-binding, and the rose's epitaph, with just the voice and a solo clarinet, stopped time itself.  

Berlioz readily recognised his own debt to Beethoven, though perhaps not quite so much his more frivolous side.  As if seeking some relief between the vibrant and forceful 7th symphony, and the projected grandeur of the 9th, Beethoven's shortest symphony is light and playful, almost teasing, which was brought out with much charm from the orchestra.  After the sober drama of the Mayer, and the opulence of the Berlioz, this Beethoven 8 was a delicious, refreshing palate cleanser, deftly delivered.

[Next : 12th May]