On the 12th March 2020, the First Minister of Scotland issued a warning about large gatherings of people the following week. In Edinburgh’s Usher Hall the audience was nigh on fully booked to hear the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Nicola Benedetti play Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. How we took things for granted back then. It was one of the last performances before lockdown, a return to anything like it with a capacity audience still seeming rather a long way off, although signs are improving.
The SCO has had a busy online life since lockdown with a successful series of streamed concerts, many recorded in Perth Concert Hall. Normally, the final concert in the Perth Festival is a big appointment in the calendar, a fully booked prestigious event to stylishly round off ten days of arts and culture. With the public still locked out, it was poignant for orchestra and soloist to revisit the Mendelssohn, a work Benedetti played many times in her late teens but one she has rested for several years.
Mozart’s Symphony no. 33 in B flat major, K319, lightly scored for strings with pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns was a cheerful opener, led and directed by Benjamin Marquise Gilmore. Mozart had embarked on an extended tour of Europe with his mother as chaperone, but when she died, the composer reluctantly returned to Salzburg. Although circumstances were difficult, they were fruitful for Mozart returning to Austro-Germanic composition in K319. A bouncy and cheerful Allegro with a sunny Ländler feel introduced the work, Marquise Gilmore ably controlling the pace while almost remaining seated. Balancing delicate bassoon and natural horn interjections with passages of exuberance, it was a joy to watch Nikita Naumov, a grin as wide as a week, applying extra bite to his double bass. Pulling back on the energy, the Andante was delivered with a stately tread kept light, airy and brightened by the oboes in an organic and fluid performance from all. The Minuet, added for performance in Vienna, was energetic and bold, each section treated with a fresh zeal like a discovery on big adventure. The mood extended into the finale, bright and witty, the players hitting their stride in unison before a joyful recapitulation of the main theme.
Rehearsed and performed three times 15 months ago by the same forces, everyone on the platform knew how Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto in E minor should go. And yet, like revisiting a favourite beauty spot after time away, there was the warm feel of reassurance of familiarity and, in the light of lockdown, new things to discover. Benedetti recorded the work when she was eighteen, a thrilling performance full of youthful vigour. Time away from the piece and the additional challenges of the past year brought a maturity to this performance. This was certainly a heightened emotional revisiting, not only in Benedetti’s interpretation but also from her sheer joy to be reunited with this particular group of musical friends again (Marquise Gilmore and Benedetti went to school together, aged 8).
The tempestuous opening Allegro was charged with energy and passion, Benedetti taking her helter-skelter runs at speed. In the quieter moments, there was a childlike sweetness, Benedetti playing like revisiting an old friend, even her storming cadenza making the most of the dramatic moments of silence before the hectic final string-crossing finish, linked by a wandering bassoon to the Andante. Benedetti made the simple theme truly sing, standing in the horseshoe where the conductor normally goes, she turned to the players to encourage the second section, creating a poised sound balance allowing sections of the orchestra to flourish. The Finale was crisp and joyous, with notable contributions from the clarinet and the cellos in a lush counter-melody, and a glorious performance from Benedetti earning a round of applause from the sponsors who had been specially allowed in for this concert.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Farewell to Stromness, arranged by Sally Beamish for strings, was a moving encore, the players eventually leaving the stage one by one until Nicholas Bootiman’s rich viola and Benedetti’s violin were left in the fading spotlight.
This performance was reviewed from the Perth Festival video stream
