SCO& Maxim Emelyanychev
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh JJJJ
Maxim Emelyanychev’s madcap Baroque-inspired concerts are becoming something of an annual fixture for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. And on the strength of this year’s freewheeling, unpredictable but immaculately delivered offering, that can only be a good thing.
Not only was Emelyanychev’s mixofrepertoireilluminating– withdiscoveriesandodditiesin amongmoreconventionalfare –butitalsoshowedtheconductor at his bounding, bouncing best, and the SCO players were onlytoohappytojoininthefun.
And a lot of fun it was, but with deeply serious musicianship behind it – a reminder, if we needed one, that entertaining doesn’t have to mean lightweight. There was nothing inconsequential, for example, aboutthetwovivaldiconcertos in Emelyanychev’s second half. Rv558isanover-the-topshowpiece for collected recorders, lutes, early clarinets and even
“prepared” violins “in tromba marina” (tin foil stuck niftily over the bridges to produce a deliciously rasping, brassy tone), and while Emelyanychev revelled in the piece’s sonic opulence, it was a performance jolted into life and crackling with electricity, joyful and vividly crafted.
The closing four-violin Concerto, RV580, was equally richly textured, bustling with energy from four of the SCO’S front-desk fiddlers, and from Emelyanychev’s fullsome harpsichord realisation. In between, he turned up clutch
ingasopraninorecorderfor Hindemith’s arrangements of ancient French dances – more limited in their sonic ambitions, perhaps, but engaging nonetheless.
The highlight saw Emelyanychev attacking his keyboard with fierce abandon in Górecki’s 1980 Harpsichord Concerto, a piece of (intentionally) infuriating repetitions but also mighty power and energy, which drove the SCO string players hard and drew whoops from the crowd.