BBC SSO & Annelien Van Wauwe
City Halls, Glasgow
Sandwiched between a sea of Debussy and Chausson in this maritime-weighted BBC SSO programme was a brand new concerto that belonged to a more earthly stratum. This was Sutra, for basset clarinet, orchestra and electronics, by the Flemish composer Wim Henderickx. As the title suggests, it takes its inspiration from yogic philosophy.
That was the wish of its dedi ca tee,belgian clarinettist anne lien vanw au we, herself an avid practitioner of the discipline.
Even if yoga’s not your thing, there was no mistaking the mystical, meditative quality of Sut ra, its four inter linked movements encased in a sound world that is inwardly seductive and outwardly ethereal. Hen de rickxc all son the players to vocalise, which add san alluring ritualism to the overall experience.
Van Wauwe’s performance was thoughtful and quietly ravishing, the use of the mellower basset horn possibly instrumental in subduing her solo presence at times, yet in the third movement, a side stepping frenzied scherzo, the awakening from the hypnotic inertia of the surrounding movements revealed a vital, energised side to the former BBC New Generation Artist.
Conductor Martyn Brabbins found endless potential in Henderickx’s score, from its subliminal live textures to their magical integration with its spectral electronic backdrop. Orchestral colour was also a winning factor in the French music that dominated the rest of the concert.
Th es so was joined by mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly inch a us son’s rapturous poème de l”amour et de la mer, exquisitely sung against the high voltage, Wagner ian-scale orchestration.
Debussy’ s symphonic seascape, Lam er, heaved and sighed as the finale to a concert that had opened somewhat inconsequentially with the same composer’s Brigadoon-esque Marche écossaise.