Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 16 August 2012

IT IS ironic that in a summer when the weather has been little better than depressing, the day when the Scottish Chamber Orchestra decides to bring a ray of sunshine into our lives in the form of a bonus concert turns out to be one of the finest of the summer.

However, such is the Orchestra’s popularity that even a rare balmy evening did not prevent the Inverness audience flocking in their droves to the Empire Theatre to relish an unashamedly accessible programme by Prokofiev, Mozart and Beethoven. Part of the attraction may have been that the SCO were performing without a conductor, but rather with a director from the violin in the person of the celebrated Dutch virtuoso Isabelle van Keulen, a musician who has built up an enviable reputation since she first appeared over the horizon by winning the Yehudi Menuhin Competition at a tender age.

Isabelle van Keulen (photo Marco Borggreve)

Even if a cynic might home in on the economic benefit, of course playing with a director rather than a conductor emphasises the skill of an orchestra. The conductor gestures ahead of the music and the musicians follow, but the director has to play at the same time and the opportunities for giving commands to the orchestra are limited. Suffice to say that the SCO were on top of their game and matched Isabelle van Keulen note for note.

From the very start of the opening allegro of Prokofiev’s Symphony No 1, “Classical”,  it was clear that van Keulan was taking no prisoners. Her approach was to attack the work in a distinctive and determined fashion with added emphasis on the dominant notes of each phrase. Perhaps it took a moment or two for the ear to adjust to the freshness of this interpretation, a bit like the fruitiness of a New World wine compared to the subtlety of a long established French vineyard. For the gentle larghetto there was a definite sweetness even if still tinged with strength. The short gavotte provided a genteel interlude before the authoritarian if headlong rush into the finale, molto vivace. Maybe Prokofiev had been looking over his shoulder in a mild pastiche to Mozart and Haydn, but there was no mistaking that this was a 20th century symphony.

For the concerto there was no pastiche, but the real thing in the form of the Clarinet Concerto in A minor, K622, by Mozart, for which van Keulan had to play a secondary role to the SCO’s principal clarinet Maximiliano Martin. Scholars have claimed that Mozart was aware that the end was nigh when he composed this concerto, his last instrumental work. Certainly there is a certain sadness in the central adagio which Martin imbued with some poignancy, but the opening allegro and the rondo finale are full of joie de vivre, calling for a back-and-forth discussion with the orchestra, a discussion that Martin won hands down. Sparkling playing commands an encore, and it was back to the 20th century for the first of the Three Short Pieces for Solo Clarinet by Stravinsky, a piece that in its languorous nature was a total contrast to the Mozart.

The SCO seems to be feeding Inverness a diet of early Beethoven symphonies at the moment. Last May it was the Second; next April it will be the Second (again with a director); at least for this concert it was the First in which Beethoven, like Prokofiev a hundred years later, is clearly looking over his shoulder to Haydn and Mozart, even if he is spreading his own wings to surprise the Viennese public. As usual the SCO were in top form and needed little direction from Isabelle van Keulen.

This is a symphony that is so better suited to the smaller scale classical orchestra rather than the army of players seen in today’s larger ensembles. And what a wonderful difference there is to the sound from the voices of the old natural horns and trumpets that give the music an added depth of character.
There is an old truism that the difference between amateur and professional musicians is that the amateur practises until it is right and that the professional practises until it cannot go wrong. It was clear that the members of the SCO sacrificed a sunny day to ensure that this concert, nor the ones in Perth and Dumfries, could not go wrong.

© James Munro, 2012

Links

• Scottish Chamber Orchestra
• Isabelle van Keulen
• Maximiliano Martin