RSNO, 27/05/2023

Wallen : Inherit the World

Hepplewhite : The Death of Robin Hood

Shaw : Its Motion Keeps

Beethoven : Triple Concerto

RSNO Youth Chorus

Patrick Barrett, conductor

Nicola Benedetti, violin

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello

Benjamin Grosvenor, piano

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Thomas Søndergård

This concert was billed as an All-Star Gala, not unjustified given the status of the three instrumental soloists featured, amongst, if not the best-known British artists in their respective categories today.  However, this was also a celebration of the RSNO Youth Chorus, with three contemporary works,  in which they were accompanied by the evening's soloists, and the first of which had been written for them.

Errollyn Wallen's Inherit the World was written for COP26, which was held here in Glasgow.  The text is also by Wallen, a bit naïve, but not inappropriate.  The piano accompaniment has a distinctly jazzy feel to it, but is otherwise extremely unobtrusive - even with a pianist of Benjamin Grosvenor's calibre, I only intermittently registered it, after the introduction.  Much of the singing was in unison, very clearly enunciated, with marked contrasts of dynamics, but not much else in the way of texture.

If Wallen and Caroline Shaw's names are fairly familiar to me, mostly thanks to the radio, Russell Hepplewhite's is not.  The Death of Robin Hood is a 2015 setting of the 19th Century American "poet of childhood" Eugene Field Sr.   The young voices are here accompanied by a solo cello, Sheku Kanneh-Mason very absorbed in delivering an eloquent counterpoint to the singing.  Although there was more harmony in the vocal lines, we were in quite a similar sound-world to Wallen, with that kind of hollow sound the exclusive use of higher registers tends to produce.  There were one or two nice effects in the piece, but ultimately I found it uninvolving.

Caroline Shaw's Its Motion Keeps was a very different matter.  The text is derived from the American Southern Harmony hymn-book, originally compiled in the first half of the 19th Century, and still in use today.  What Shaw has taken from it is almost a collage, not completely random, but not entirely straightforward either, and is mostly about the passing of time.  Over and above the words, though, Shaw uses an extensive sound vocabulary, syllables and sounds, humming or murmuring.  There are very strongly marked stereo effects, and a very clear demarcation between soprano and alto voices.  The work was originally accompanied, I think, by a string quartet, but this was arranged for Nicola Benedetti's solo violin, obsessively repeating patterns as the voices splintered and re-formed around her.  Shaw acknowledged a debt to Britten in her programme note, and its certainly true that there were moments that were very strongly reminiscent, particularly of A Ceremony of Carols, but not to the point of ever confusing the two.  This was an enthralling work, making magnificent use of the young voices, giving them both colour and dimension, and very convincingly delivered by the chorus.

I will never understand why Beethoven's Triple Concerto is considered a lesser work.  It is more or less contemporary with the "Eroica" Symphony, and it shares its expansive, generous mood.  Søndergård played around with the tempi in the outer movements a little too often for my liking, thought the trio of soloists were completely on board with it, following perfectly.  However, on the whole, this was a vigorous, full-blooded performance, assertive and passionate in the first movement, lyrical duetting from  violin and cello (the piano is more of an accompanist here) in the second, and playful and bold in the last movement.  I could have wished for a somewhat fuller sound from Kanneh-Mason, he seemed a little under-powered at times, and the balance in the trio wasn't perfect, but the connection between them was almost palpable, which largely compensated for any other shortcomings.  

The first movement was delivered with such panache that it garnered a solid round of applause, and, naturally, by the end, the soloists were persuaded to give an encore.  No disrespect to the artists, but it was rather going from the sublime to the ridiculous, or at least the palm court orchestra, with an arrangement (by Kreisler, apparently) of the "Londonderry Air".  Beautifully done, but after the grandeur of the Beethoven, a little cheesy.  

[There was a second half to this concert, to feature Brahms's 1st Symphony, but I was unfortunately unable to stay for it.]

[Next : 10th June]