SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Season 2009-10: A preview from Simon Thompson (SRT)


The Scottish Chamber Orchestra have just announced their new season, and there is lots to look forward to.  The big event is the arrival of their new principal conductor, Robin Ticciati.  Already turning heads south of the border, his opening concert will definitely make a splash as he makes his debut with the ever-popular Magdalena Kožená singing songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  His three concerts also include a lot of Berlioz, climaxing in L’enfance du Christ in February.  For two of these he will be joined by this year’s featured artist, Karen Cargill, who takes on Mary in L’enfance and Berlioz’s Cléopâtre.  The SCO have been without a principal conductor for too long and it will be fascinating to see what Ticciati does with this ever flexible band.

Once we’ve got through all this year’s Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, 2010 brings commemorations of a different kind.  The 200^th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann brings his Spring symphony in a wider context of Romanticism in March, and his rarely performed Mass in May.  Another important anniversary, closer to home, is the 75^th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, SCO composer laureate, who is celebrated in October with his Fourth Symphony.  Oliver Knussen will conduct and the composer himself will be in conversation beforehand.  James MacMillan’s 50^th birthday also coincides with the Scottish Government’s Homecoming campaign and at the end of November, in time for St Andrew’s Day, there will be a concert of works by three Scottish composers including Macmillan and the world premiere of Edward Harper’s new symphony celebrating Robert Burns.

It is wonderful to see the continuation of the CL@SIX series, a programme of hour-long early evening concerts in Edinburgh City Centre (St Cuthbert’s Parish Church).  These were a real hit this year, and it is entirely characteristic of the orchestra to seek out new ways of bringing music to the public at large.  Richard Egarr and Nicholas McGegan guest at two of these.

Other treats include Sir Charles Mackerras and Radovan Vlatković in Strauss’s Horn Concerto in January, Christian Zacharias who plays Schubert’s D major Sonata and conducts the Great C major Symphony in April, and the seasonal finale featuring Trevor Pinnock and Maria João Pires in Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto.  Equally exciting, however, is the season openener, featuring Schubert’s unfinished symphony and an outing for the SCO chorus in Mozart’s C minor mass.  I, for one, can’t wait.  The SCO remain Edinburgh’s greatest cultural ambassadors and their new season promises to be a great one.

You can view the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s new season online at http://www.sco.org.uk.  Subscriptions are on sale now, starting at four concerts.  Single tickets are on sale from 8^th June.

Simon Thompson


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