Richard Egarr was the guest conductor and the first piece on this Scottish Chamber Orchestra programme was Beethoven’s overture to the ballet Creatures of Prometheus.
Taken at a terrific pace, the composition perfectly mirrored his flamboyant, energetic conducting style with the dramatic blast of horns at the beginning setting the tone for this majestic music. One doesn’t normally associate Beethoven with ballet music but he had received a prestigious commission to write this piece from the highly influential Maria Teresa of Naples and Sicily and he based the fourth movement of his Eroica symphony and his Eroica Variations for piano on the main theme of the last movement of the ballet. The torch that heralds the Olympic games journey from city to city is in commemoration of Prometheus’ gift of fire stolen from the Gods.
Richard Egarr is familiar to the SCO players [he has been an Associate Artist of the SCO since 1982 and is a virtuoso keyboard player. His repertoire ranges from fifteenth-century compositions to the current day. In this performance he was the conductor and soloist in Dussek’s Piano Concerto in G minor.
Before the concerto began Egarr addressed the audience asking us if we had heard of this composer. Few had. But Dussek, born in Czechoslovakia in 1731 and a contemporary of Mozart, was a famous pianist during his lifetime and wrote a prodigious number of piano concertos – eighteen in total.
The style of the concerto is similar to Mozart’s with its abundance of runs which Egarr accomplished effortlessly. It is a challenge to conduct and play at the same time – few conductor’s do so – but Egarr obviously has an excellent rapport with the players and skillfully achieved a marvelous performance of this unknown concerto.
The final piece on the programme was Schubert’s Symphony no 6 called “Little C Major” to distinguish it from his ninth in C major. The symphony is in four movements and as far as the orchestration is concerned, the difference between the two symphonies is that ‘little C major’ does not have any trombones.
An expansive symphony in four movements, it frequently featured the accomplished flautist Alison Mitchell. Indeed all the musicians played to perfection and created a memorable performance.
Show times
18th January – City Halls, Glasgow – 7.30pm
Tickets: £13 - £27 [concessions available]
19th January – Aberdeen Music Hall – 7.30pm
Tickets: £10 - £21 [concessions available]