Review: Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, Ross Bandstand

Published on Monday 7 September 2009 09:38

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert ***** Ross Bandstand

SEATED in the Ross Bandstand area awaiting the familiar crash-bang routine that marks the end of another Edinburgh International Festival, one tends to think of what has happened throughout the three-week event and to reminisce about yesteryear.

Splendid performances of the past few days should not be allowed to blur over the plain fact that, in general, the fare on offer in concert hall and opera theatre has not measured up to the high standards set by earlier directors. That there have been rather too many empty seats in the Usher Hall serves to indicate that programmes on offer there have not appealed adequately to enough concert goers.

This time round, the space for spectators who roll up in their thousands for the Fireworks Concert was limited because of tram works. Princes Street was virtually shut off.

Contrary to what recent weather may seem to indicate, it is as long ago as 2003 since the event was rained upon. That year, the heavens opened almost precisely on the famous first choral entry in Handel's anthem Zadok the Priest – composed for the coronation of George II. Following on the exhilarating sequence of music and spectacle which opened proceedings yesterday evening, that divine eminence reminded us of his return by sending down a few droplets, but fortunately the impending shower held off until after the show was over.

Rightly or wrongly, it is popularly imagined that Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks set the pattern for outdoor concerts with pyrotechnics. That composition appears regularly in these closing events. The last time it cropped up was six years back, and there are those of us around who can still recall that it featured as early as 1953. It first caused a stir in London 260 years ago. On that occasion there could have been little coordination of the two elements. It is not difficult to imagine that the fireworks went on popping and banging away with scant relationship to what the orchestra was playing.

Antiphonal dialogue of wind and strings in the Overture was reflected by contrasting patterns in the sky that fitted the music with admirable precision, and its quicker allegro continued these exchanges with the colour scheme changing to red and orange.

The lighter music of the Bourre introduced a gentler approach on the battlements, but noise and brashness returned in the triumphal La Rjouissance. It remained for the concluding Minuet to demonstrate how successfully Handel's unpretentious idiom fits nobly with what was, at the premire a royal occasion.

The Entry of the Queen of Sheba, otherwise the Sinfonia that introduces Part III of the oratorio Solomon might be described as "busy" music. That is certainly how it was interpreted by pyrotechnicians Wilf Scott and Keith Webb, but they reserved their most spectacular sequence for the concluding Hallelujah chorus from Messiah.

Conductor Matthew Halls presided, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra responded well to his direction and his choristers gave stirring performances of their two items – without, as in 2003, being soaked.