The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Display of formidable cello playing leaves listener in wonderment
Every time I see Beethoven’s Eroica symphony in a concert programme, I check to see what other items are on the bill.
Not because I’m tired of this work – totally the opposite, as I love it to bits. It’s because the other works or indeed their performers have a job on their hands to emulate Beethoven’s greatest work. Well, it is his greatest in my eyes.
There was no problem in this respect at Wednesday’s Scottish Chamber Orchestra concert in the Younger Hall, St Andrews. I was charmed and intrigued by one, and bewildered and bamboozled by the other.
The bamboozlement came not from the work, Haydn’s D major cello concerto, but by the performance of soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Blistering finger-work and thumb position double-stopping were just two examples of a stunning, dynamic and virtuosic technique that defied all probability. And his wizard-like performance was delivered with a carefree nonchalance which made it all even more impressive. The cadenza in the first movement was a joy to behold but in reality, the whole work was an extended cadenza, a display of formidable cello playing that left me shaking my head in wonder.
The encore was the icing on a delicious cake, the prelude from Bach’s G major solo suite. Not quite as flamboyant as the Haydn, perhaps, but played with grace and precision.
The intrigue came from Thierry Eschaich’s Baroque Song. I’m sometimes sceptical about so-called “neo-baroque” works but in this case it did exactly what it said on the tin.
As for the Beethoven, I put the SCO’s marvellous recording with Sir Charles Mackerras as the definitive performance as I’ve never heard anything better. Wednesday’s performance came close, as conductor Alexandre Bloch took us through 50 or so minutes of sheer delight.
There were the usual highlights – the marvellous invention of the first movement’s development, the haunting funereal second movement and the unsurpassable theme and variations of the finale. If the SCO wanted to bring the curtain down on another season of Younger Hall concerts on a high note, it was a case of “mission accomplished”.