OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 14 March 2010

Sylvie Rohrer as Pierrot

WITH a projection of the full moon casting its shadow over the stage, Hebrides Ensemble’s latest tour was a masterstroke of programming, each inspiring work informing and enhancing the audience’s experience of the next.

The contradictory spirit of commedia dell’arte and the complex character of Pierrot permeated a series of challenging contemporary and classic works by Sally Beamish, Helen Grime, Claude Debussy, Frederic Chopin and Arnold Schoenberg. The central work of the programme, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, with a mesmerising performance by Sylvie Roher, was saved till last.

Commedia (1990) by Sally Beamish was based on scenes from Italian commedias of the 17th and 18th centuries, and provided an overture to the whole programme. Conceived as “a kind of ballet” where “every instrument is a character”, Beamish’s composition combined set scenes and improvisation to good effect.

The character and tone of the work with its aural interpretations of slapstick and chase and distinctive orchestration are a great piece of theatre. The contrast between instruments, the discordant high clarinet or piccolo and the central lone figure of the cello for example, establish the main characters of the commedia dell’arte by way of exposition.

The piece also encourages the audience to perceive harmony or beauty outside our traditional melodic expectation, a characteristic shared by the Schoenberg, Grime and Debussy works that followed.

The texture of sound and the emotional tone of expression give us a sense of structure which may well be outside our normal concert hall comfort zone, but provide a welcome opportunity to listen in an entirely different way. With this in mind the appearance of actress Sylvie Roher during this performance of Commedia was an unnecessary distraction.

Debussy’s beautiful and engaging Sonata For Cello and Piano (1915), performed by Hebrides Ensemble Artistic Director William Conway (cello) and Phillip Moore (piano), exploited the sonorous meandering depths of the instrument in the opening sections, developing into a more expansive exploration of the instrument grappling between major and minor keys. An episodic and distinctly interior piece of music, Debussy moves beyond signature impressionism in his cello sonata to reveal greater depth than just fleeting sensations.

Young Scottish composer Helen Grime’s newly commissioned work Seven Pierrot Minatures (2010), inspired by seven poems by symbolist Albert Giraud and drawn from the same collection upon which Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire is based, concluded the first half of the programme.

The Hebrides Ensemble’s policy of incorporating new works into their programme is always an exciting element, and Grime’s composition was no exception. The emerging sense of expectation in the first movement is quite masterful, with a delicacy of textures convincingly interwoven, then plunging into a world of lunar surreality.

The quality of voice in each individual instrument, sometimes violently pitted against each other or in quixotic monologue, allowed both soloist and the ensemble to shine. Using the character of Pierrot as inspiration, Grime’s imaginative scope as a composer is richly evident in this piece, unfolding in a sophisticated series of poetic movements.

Chopin’s Valse OP. 64 No 2 in C# Minor (1867), played by Phillip Moore, provided a surprisingly seamless introduction to the second half of the programme. Linked to the fifth section of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, ‘Valse De Chopin’, the variation of the waltz in solo piano, its contrasting delicacy, melancholy and playfulness drew Pierrot, played by Vienna Burgtheater Ensemble lead actress Sylvie Roher, onto the stage.

Roher’s performance as the speaker in Pierrot Lunaire was completely captivating, conveying all the subtleties of Schoenberg’s score in brilliant counterpoint with the ensemble as a whole. The sprechstimme style of delivery, an intriguing cross between high opera and lowly cabaret, with pitch and rhythm rising and falling in the manner of speech, feels very much like the human voice freed from the constraints of harmonic and melodic expectation.

Schoenberg extends the range of the Germanic song cycle and the voice of the individual, his arrangement of three groups of seven poems creating an emotional sense of structure and movement within the work. The orchestration of flute, piccolo, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano and voice are perfectly in keeping with the extremities of the poetry, the blend of sound expressionist rather than harmonic in nature. Seeing such work performed live is both a rarity and a pleasure.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

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