OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 21 October 2009

THE SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE celebrate their 40th anniversary this year, and launched their winter season with a programme which leader Jonathan Morton described as one dedicated to exploring the range of sound available from their string instruments.

Scottish Ensemble (© Joanne Green)

That exploration stretched from the intricate counterpoint of J S Bach to the equally intricate sonic explorations of Luciano Berio, flanked by two great works for string orchestra from the English repertoire. It proved to be a very satisfying programme, although I know from comments made to me afterwards that Berio’s Corale (an ensemble development of his Sequenza VIII) stretched the tolerance of many of the regulars past breaking point.

That said, it was very enthusiastically received, and the applause was not merely a token of politeness – soloist Clio Gould, the former leader of the group before she relinquished that role to Morton (keeping it in the family – the pair are married, and indeed, met in the Ensemble), was recalled to the stage three times.

Some of those who admitted to hating the piece nonetheless readily acknowledged that the performance had been remarkable, and rightly so. Berio’s fragmentary melodies, fractured rhythms and the stinging asperities of his wide-ranging exploration of the sonic possibilities of the strings made challenging listening for those schooled in the disciplines of 18th and 19th century models.

Corale inhabits a very different sound-world. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable piece, as carefully structured in its own idiom as the Bach Concerto which followed it after the interval. Clio Gould gave a breathtaking performance of the hugely demanding solo role (even the performing score she used was a monster), while the expanded ensemble – including two horn players – rose to its manifold challenges in fine style.

This was the opening night of their tour, and Morton expressed the hope that they would get to the end of this “very hard” piece intact. I can’t vouch for it having been note perfect to the complex score (although it may well), but it was entirely convincing.

They opened the concert with Michael Tippett’s early Concerto for Double String Orchestra, a piece that I know well from recordings, but have never seen performed live. The layout of the group, each with two mirror-image groupings of six violins, paired violas and cellos and a double bass, made visual sense of the double concerto concept, and allowed an even greater appreciation of the contrapuntal intricacies and mobile additive rhythms that make this early score such a beguiling example of the composer’s work.

The Ensemble began life as the Scottish Baroque Ensemble under Leonard Friedman in 1969, and the choice of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D minor reflected those distant origins. Clio Gould and Jon Morton took the solo roles, and played with an empathic understanding in unfolding Bach’s beautifully structured musical conversation.

They closed with a superb account of Ralph Vaughan William’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, a hugely popular work in the string repertoire. A group of students from the RSAMD in Glasgow swelled the ranks for this piece, which again features an orchestra within the orchestra. The second group, led by Gould, is often just a string quartet, but was expanded on this occasion to excellent effect.

It was fitting that both Clio Gould and Jonathan Morton should have been involved in this celebration. Gould’s tenure as leader saw the group take great strides forward in both the breadth of their ambition and the quality of their playing, and Morton has continued to build on that progress. Both have been aided along the way by enlightened leadership off the stage, initially with Roger Pollen and subsequently Heather Duncan. That, too, continues to be the case under Elizabeth Andrews, and augers well for the continued advance of this excellent ensemble.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009

Links

• Scottish Ensemble