EIF music reviews: Kammerorchester Basel | Wu Man | Balimaya Project | Pierre-Laurent Aimard

From the rich sound of one of Switzerland's finest orchestras to some refreshing "east meets east" fusion, and a 12-piece London ensemble whose show felt like a family affair, memorable music performances keep on coming at this year's EIF

Kammerorchester Basel | Maxime Ragni

Kammerorchester Basel ★★★★

Usher Hall

The most immediately striking thing about the Basel Chamber Orchestra is the sheer quality of its sound: it’s rich (a trio of double basses adds depth and heft), velvety, but also nimble, dynamic and ringingly clear. Those were qualities employed to great effect in its International Festival concert, which – rather gratifyingly – featured not one but two female composers we really ought to know more about.

Okay, with its over-reliance on literal repetitions, Fanny Mendelssohn’s C major Overture was hardly her finest work, but with gentle but clear guidance from leader Julia Schröder, the Basel players gave a beautifully judged account of utter conviction. Fellow German composer Emilie Mayer was dubbed the ‘female Beethoven’, but her 1852 Fifth Symphony sounded closer to Mendelssohn or Weber, and the Basel ensemble played up her unusual, constantly surprising scoring vividly.

In between came a limpid, poetic but also steely account of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, for which Seong-Jin Cho stood in for an indisposed Hélène Grimaud (always handy when an international star pianist is around for a Queen’s Hall recital the day before). It was a compelling, deeply rewarding performance blending immaculate technique and musical insights, one whose exquisite beauty was offset by a sense of purpose and direction at every turn. All in all, a concert of surprises and revelations.

David Kettle

Wu Man ★★★★

The Hub

Some instruments seem specifically created to interact with silence. Such is the pipa, the venerable Chinese four-stringed lute, of which Wu Man is a foremost exponent. Rather than a solo recital, however, she was joined here by two central Asian musicians, Sirojiddin Juraev, a master of the long-necked Tajik lute, and Uzbek percussion maestro Abbos Kosimov.

Wu played one solo piece, Flute and Drum Music at Sunset, with delicacy and authority, the pipa’s strings ringing or whining, leaving bright notes hanging in the air. In trio, her tone contrasted effectively with the more muted but powerful drive of Juraev’s lute, playing in unison or swapping phrases, while Kosimov accompanied with a variety of effectively deployed percussion.

Juraev and Kosimov also had their solo spots, an animated Tajik lute piece working up flamenco-like excitement and Kosimov displaying almost preternatural dexterity as he played multiple hand drums, shakers and even his own body.

One might have liked to hear more of Wu’s solo pipa playing. This was, however, a hugely engaging collaboration that exemplified concert co-presenters the Aga Khan Music Programme’s promotion of “east-east” fusion, rather than the currently globally popular east-west variety.

Jim Gilchrist

Balimaya Project ★★★★

Queen's Hall

London-based collective Balimaya Project take their name from the Maninka word for “brotherhood” but this 12-piece ensemble create such a warm, magnetic sound and experience that the entire audience was invited into the family.

Their debut Scottish show began with some gorgeously mellifluous acoustic guitar but soon enough their other musical ingredients were added to the mix including glistening electric piano, flute, brass, bass, congas and djembe with a special place reserved for kora. As bandleader Camara Onono explained, their mission is to celebrate the Mandé musical traditions of West Africa – on this evidence, a more subtly calibrated concoction than the party sounds of highlife and Afrobeat.

The folk roots were apparent in the poetic resonance of the kora solos, a transcendental prayer before full band engagement building to an intense rhythmic fiesta. When the Dust Settles, a title deriving from the tradition of the community circle, was itself a fluid conversation between insistent drums and flowing brass. Elsewhere, Onono delivered an absorbing drum solo before passing the baton to his fellow players, giving space for individual musicians to showcase their virtuosity in playful ways before finally the audience were beckoned to their feet for the celebratory climax.

Fiona Shepherd

Pierre-Laurent Aimard ★★★★

Queen’s Hall

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard bravely focussed his Queen’s Hall solo recital on music from the Second Viennese School, mostly Schoenberg, but with Webern’s seminal Variations Op 27 to broaden the experience. His ultimate trick, however, was to further intersperse those with Brahms and Schumann (composers whose legacy and fundamental principles chimed with Schoenberg), and Scriabin (a contemporary steering an alternative course). 

It may not have drawn the largest crowd, but what we gained was an experience rich in context: from the opening three Brahms Intermezzi a reminder of the serious intensity of the anti-Wagner romantics; in Schumann’s late Gesäng Der Frühe a teetering on the brink of modernism, eager to explore a more distant landscape. Where Aimard seemed unduly heavy-handed in these, his Scriabin Sonata No 9 was blissfully and organically crafted. 

More thoroughly convincing, though, were his Second Viennese performances. The delicate gestural flamboyance of Schoenberg’s Op 33a/b piano pieces was jewel-like. The Five Piano Pieces Op 23 introduced explosive rhetoric and mischievous wit. Webern’s Variations were nuanced to perfection; Schoenberg’s six Op 19 pieces refreshingly translucent, like soft centres behind a crystalline façade. Then finally and triumphantly the cathartic expressive range of the Op 11 Drei Klavierstücke. 

Kenneth Walton