Jonathan Morton handed over the reins to guest director Anthony Marwood for the final set of concerts in the 2010/11 series from the Scottish Ensemble. Marwood was also the soloist for the UK premiere of Schuman's Cello Concerto arranged for violin by Orlando Jopling. It was interesting to see how differently the group responded to a different leader.
To start, we heard a youthful Mendelssohn's String Symphony 13 with some colourful and expressive playing. This was followed by Morton Gould's String Music. Composed for Rostropovich's last season with the National Symphony in Washington, this piece won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995, and as Anthony Marwood explained, is full of stuff Rostropovich would have liked, including a Tango, one of five small movements. Even the Dirge was compelling with it's double bass beginnings. The finale, Strum, was almost a hoe-down, and the Ensemble were enjoying themselves.
The meat of the evening was the Schumann with Anthony Marwood putting in a thrilling virtuosic performance, well matched by the slightly augmented Ensemble. It must have sounded so different from the original written for cello and orchestra. In programming terms, this was a great piece to round off the evening, but the concert felt light and we were home a bit too early.