Universal Hall, Findhorn, 26 July 2006

Joseph Swensen.

UNIVERSAL HALL has hosted many events, but I’m prepared to bet that Lesley Quilty and her team never anticipated the day when they would host the world premiere performance of a ‘new’ work by Johannes Brahms.

Okay, so Brahms died in 1897, and I concede that he didn’t actually write the work in question. The ‘Sinfonia in B’, to give it its chosen title, was an orchestration of Brahms’ early Piano Trio, arranged for orchestra by Joseph Swensen, the former Principal Conductor and now Emeritus Conductor of the orchestra.

Before mounting the podium, Swensen took a moment to remind us all that this was in fact the world premiere, since the programme neglected to mention the fact, and to thank the players for their contribution to the unfolding of the work.

He wrote it very much with this orchestra in mind, and one of his intentions was that it should reflect their considerable virtuosity in a way that Brahms seldom if ever did with his own orchestral music, which leans to the conservative, perhaps because he did not feel any great confidence in the standards of the orchestral playing of his day.

Orchestral players are a different kettle of fish these days, and Swensen was determined to test out his idea that an orchestration of the neglected early version of the Trio – more of that in a moment – could reflect he kind of virtuosity that Brahms routinely built into his piano and chamber music.

The vehicle he chose for this task was the original and rarely performed version of the Trio, Op 8. Brahms revised the work three decades after its original composition with better sales in mind, and changed it almost beyond recognition, but chose to retain the original opus number. Thus, the familiar version of the Trio is really late Brahms masquerading as early, and the early version is now sadly neglected.

Swensen set himself the task of restoring it to the attention of the concert-going public via an orchestration that emerged as part Brahms, part Swensen, part the ghost of Schumann (his influence was excised from the revision of the piece), and partly the zeitgeist of the post-Brahmsian era, with its more virtuoso orchestral playing and more modern harmonic sensibility.

It was often an exciting and energised piece, full of passion and performed with total commitment by both conductor and orchestra. There was a bit of an air of a child set loose in a toy shop in some of the more lavish orchestral effects, as though Swensen was desperate to cram in as much as possible. Some of his gambits came across as a little too contrived on first hearing, while others worked spectacularly well, and the whole provided an absorbing – if not always particularly Brahmsian – experience.

The concert opened the second leg of the SCO’s annual Highland tour, and like its predecessor in June, it featured one of the Wind Concertos by Mozart included on last year’s CD recording under that name from the orchestra. Mozart has always been a staple item on the SCO’s menu, but the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth has brought an expanded focus on his work this year.

In Strathpeffer in June, Ursula Leveaux played the Bassoon Concerto under the baton of Estonian conductor Olari Elts. She captured both the melodic grace and the wide leaps of the vivacious first movement in supple fashion, and rose to the lyrical challenge of the aria-like slow movement and vibrant rondo finale with equal conviction.

The orchestra responded with typically crisp and expressive playing in a programme that also included French composer Jacques Ibert’s affectionate ‘Hommage á Mozart’, a stylish and witty tribute, and Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, originally written for two pianos but performed here in Mozart’s own version for strings, the Overture from ‘Don Giovanni’, and a committed and beautifully detailed account of another familiar masterpiece, the great ‘Symphony No 40’.

Elts’ interpretation of issues like accentuation, dynamics and tempo was impeccable throughout, and the players showed every sign of forming a very productive partnership with the conductor.

The productivity of their ongoing relationship with Swensen is long since established beyond any doubt. In Findhorn it was the turn of principal flute Alison Mitchell to step up from the ranks in Mozart’s ‘Flute Concerto in G’, following a colourful account of Mendelssohn’s ‘Overture: The Fair Melusine’.

A lighting malfunction delayed Mitchell’s entrance for a few minutes, but when she was allowed to take the stage, she delivered a poised and expressive account of the gorgeous solo part, notably in the wonderful slow movement that is the heart of this work.

Mozart may have said that he disliked flute, but he was congenitally incapable of writing anything other than beautiful music for it. Her playing was supported by impeccable orchestral playing in the richly textured accompaniments, although the un-scored participation of a passing jet from the adjacent RAF KInloss during the first movement cadenza was unfortunate.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra have been sorely missed over the winter with the suspension of Eden Court’s orchestral concert series, and it was good to seem them back in such fine form. The Highland Tour concludes in the customary manner in September with separate concerts from the Strings and Wind Ensembles.

© George MacKay, 2006