Classical review: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Published on Monday 22 June 2009 22:53

*** CITY HALLS, GLASGOW

AMID the splurge of concerts presented by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra over the weekend in its free ListenHere! series, Saturday's programme focused on the music of the New Celts.

These turned out to be Scottish or UK premieres of works by four composers either born in Scotland or, in the case of Irishman David Fennessy, who studied and now work here. The most telling factor in all this was the diversity of style and approach. Some of it bore the hand of maturity; some of it bore the raw spirit of experimentation.

There was no mistaking the former in David Horne's Submergence. Its electrifying streaks of energy were gripping from the very outset of this hard-hitting performance under Ilan Volkov, whose last official appearance as SSO chief conductor (before moving aside to become principal guest conductor) this was.

But the most refreshing aspect of Horne's single-movement work was its economy of content and colour. Nothing seemed superfluous. Its fiery textures were like burnished brass; its structure solid and purposeful. Fennessy's This is How it Feels (Another Bolero) sets out to explore the intimate physicality – to some extent spirituality – of instrumental sound. Its elemental sound world, while occasionally self-conscious in execution, proved refreshing in contrast to John Clapperton's earthy Songs and Dances of Death, written with militaristic swagger for a Norwegian military band.

Martin Suckling's Breathe provided a short, teasing opener, its gradually expanding gestures inspired by the composer's dozing cat and sensitively packaged by a tight-knit, reduced SSO ensemble.