VoxCarnyx

City Halls, Glasgow

Paradoxically, one thought prompted by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Schubert’s Symphony No 4 was whether the orchestra and Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev intend to complete a survey of Schubert symphonies, having already recorded three of them for Linn.

What would Emelyanychev bring to this one, once labelled the “Tragic” and sometimes dismissed as lightweight and derivative by comparison with others in the composer’s catalogue? Without a conductor on the podium, the SCO, under the minimal direction of leader Stephanie Gonley, produced a dynamic interpretation that gave the lie to that opinion, and grew in stature as the work unfolded.

For a small orchestra, the players managed to produce a mighty sound at times, particularly in the finale, which combined impact with clarity. Before that the Scherzo was fleet and fun, even if it does owe a debt to both Beethoven and Haydn, and the Andante, wonderfully resonant from the lower pitched instruments, had a profound edginess.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, on the other hand, is agreed to be an early masterpiece, and was the headline piece of the concert, which was originally scheduled to be directed by Lorenza Borrani, leader of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Instead it was Gonley who partnered first viola Max Mandel as soloists, with the pair communicating equally with their colleagues in a performance for which a conductor would have been superfluous.

There is an equal division of labour between violin and viola throughout the work and this reading really shifted up a gear with the dialogue of the cadenza at the end of the opening movement, a conversation that continued in a very moving account of the central Andante. If the Presto finale sounds at times like the overture to an opera the young composer had yet to write, the slow movement is to all intents and purposes the hit aria.

The overture to this concert programme was a world premiere, no less, and another fine new work from the orchestra’s prolific Associate Composer, Jay Capperauld. Carmina Gadelica, or “Song of the Gaels”, takes its inspiration from the rich musical traditions of Scotland’s Western Isles, including the unaccompanied Psalm-singing of the Free Kirk, the metronomic work rhythms of Waulking Songs and, finally, country dance music.

Composed for a ten-piece wind ensemble in five distinct movements, Capperauld’s imaginative scoring is as beguiling as always, even if this is one of his less esoteric works. In fact it is easy to imagine it becoming the entry point for many new listeners to appreciate his music, although having wind soloists of the quality of those in the SCO was a huge advantage for its first performances.

Keith Bruce