SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Ravel: Kate Royal (soprano), Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Olari Elts (conductor) Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 17.1.2009 (SRT)

Mendelssohn: Overture, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Berlioz: Les Nuits d’Été
Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte
Saint-Saëns: Symphony in A major


So far the SCO’s Mendelssohn commemorations have been admirably varied, featuring music by other composers too.  The theme of this concert was Summer Nights in Winter, creating a golden opportunity to link Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with Berlioz’s Nuits d’Été.  Berlioz’s cycle is no simple evocation of summer pleasures, however, something brought out by the nuanced interpretation of Kate Royal.  Her versatile voice – bright at the top, creamy and rich in the middle register – brought out all the subtleties of Berlioz’s moods, though some of the lower writing at the beginning of Sur les Lagunes challenged her.  She flitted into the varied moods of the songs with ease and elegance.  Villanelle was full of youthful joi de vivre, while La Spectre de la Rose was full of remarkable pathos, eliciting remarkable sympathy for what can seem a trite subject.  I wasn’t so convinced by the melodrama of Sur les Lagunes, which needs a darker voice, though the declamatory style of L’Absence enabled her to show off her beautiful middle register.  The orchestra were the stars of Au Cimitière, especially the spectral solo violin evoking the “white veiled shadow” by the tombstone.  Conductor Olari Elts helped vary the mood of the final song so that the optimism of the opening eventually tapered into a more melancholic edge, suggesting that perhaps a poignant ending was not too far away.  The size of the SCO in the Queen’s Hall suited these songs perfectly, and for the most part Royal’s lovely voice floated over them effortlessly.

This was a big improvement after the rather clunky overture that opened the concert.  It felt at times as though Elts was dragging the orchestra behind him rather than having the sprightliness needed for this work.  It felt that the four wind chords that opened the work held rather more uncertainty than the composer intended.  The tempi felt somewhat distended and insecure at the beginning, especially in the big tuttis which sounded quite congested.  The Pavane was much more steady, without being lugubrious.  Capable as the wind soloists were, it was the strings that shone in this piece, with a real romantic glow, particularly in the sections immediately after the winds have given the main theme.  Having praised them last week (see review) for their skill in playing in “authentic” style, the SCO again showed the diversity which is one of their greatest assets.

The Saint-Saëns symphony is an early work, dating from 1850 when he was only 15 years old, hence its lack of a number.  It was great fun to listen to, and it was here that Olari Elts seemed the most at home.  He leaned into each movement, pulling around the dynamics and shading as if this was a work that fully deserved to be taken seriously, and the orchestra repaid him by playing with tremendous vigour especially, again, the strings whose warm tone shone golden in the first and second movements.  Then, as if coming full circle, the finale brought reminders of the filigree string chatter that had opened the Mendelssohn, only here the combination of the light touch and the strong hand was altogether more convincing.

Simon Thompson


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