19 June, 2007

James Mackenzie

IT IS 17 years since the Scottish Chamber Orchestra last visited Shetland. It's been a long wait but well, well worth it.

I chose to hear (and see) the whole orchestra with conductor on Saturday night, in the main hall of Clickimin Leisure Centre, along with about 500 other people - very nearly a full house.

The programme promised a wide variety of music: a piece for strings by the contemporary composer Sally Beamish, folk songs arranged by Benjamin Britten, an overture by Felix Mendelssohn, and to cap it all, a complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. There was definitely a buzz of excited anticipation in the hall.

The first notes of 'The Day Dawn' by Sally Beamish were breathtakingly haunting. As she had written in the programme notes, she had dedicated it to a friend whose young daughter had died while she was living in Shetland, basing the piece on the old Shetland fiddle air of the same name. Hints of this tune occurred until at the end, its opening bars were played in true fiddle style - by leader of the orchestra and first violinist Christopher George. As the air was traditionally played to mark the turn of the year at the winter solstice, so the piece evokes a calm light after the darkness of bereavement.

The full orchestra came on with tenor Joshua Ellicott to perform seven of Benjamin Britten's 'Folksongs of the British Isles'. These ranged from the plaintive 'Salley Gardens' and 'Oh Waly Waly', through the witty 'Oliver Cromwell' and the satirical 'The Ploughboy', to the passionate 'The Bonny Earl o' Moray'. As well as possessing a fine voice, Joshua Ellicot has a compelling visual presence. His eyes constantly engaged the audience, and truly flashed with indignation at the murder of the Earl of Moray. Meanwhile Britten's arrangements are as varied as the subject matter of the songs.

A short interval was followed by Felix Mendelssohn's famous 'Overture: The Hebrides', otherwise known as 'Fingal's Cave'. Perhaps unsurprisingly the composer was violently seasick when he voyaged to Staffa to see the cave - one wonders what kind of tourist boat was available in 1829 - so it is all the more surprising that the first bars of the overture came to him while on board. The resulting piece is a majestic evocation of the power and shimmering beauty of the sea and the sculptural basalt columns of the cave.

Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 1' was first performed in Vienna in 1800, with he himself conducting. It was apparently coolly received, and some conventional ears of the time must have been alarmed at some of Beethoven's breaks with the classical tradition, for example the opening sequence played in several different keys.

The whole symphony proceeds at a restless pace to the grand finale, and although Hector Berlioz, an admirer of Beethoven, thought it uncharacteristic, it seems to bear all the hallmarks of his later symphonies.

All this wonderful music was played with consummate skill and evident enjoyment by the 38 strong orchestra, under the leadership of Christopher George and the baton of the astonishingly balletic Garry Walker. To conduct with one's whole body with such lightness - at times I thought he would float off into space - requires fitness and agility. As he has climbed all 284 Munros, no problem there...

The choice for this concert of 'The Day Dawn' with its Shetland theme, and of 'Fingal's Cave' with its maritime subject, were appropriate of course. The programme notes were excellent (I confess I have freely plundered from them for this review), the compact discs on offer in the interval were good value, and I have heard that the other two nights, of strings and of wind instruments, were splendid occasions also. I have no doubt that the music workshops were inspirational.

Such was the enthusiastic and sustained applause of the audience on Saturday night an encore was inevitable. So we were treated to seven Romanian dances, arranged by Béla Bartók. The final three are marked, so Garry Walker informed us, "fast, faster, fastest" - and so they were, ending at a furious pace, after some fine flute and violin solos in true Balkan style.

That 500 people attended this marvellous concert, surely demonstrates a thirst in Shetland for such music. All credit to Shetland Arts and Shetland Islands Council - among others - and of course the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and its administration and sponsors, for granting us the opportunity to drink at the fountain of genius. And although it's said there can be too much of a good thing, let's hope we don't have to wait another 17 years to sup again.