Classical review: Scottish Ensemble, St Andrew’s in the Square, Glasgow

Artistic director Jonathan Morton had come up with the simple yet effective conceit of going back in time, starting with the 1960s radicalism of Ligeti’s Ramifications and ending back in the early 18th century with Bach’s E major Violin Concerto.

Thankfully, it proved to be an evening of revelations, both as a time-travelling exercise – contrasting the pieces’ wildly different styles – and in the works’ individual performances. Judging by interval reactions, though, it took a while for some audience members to feel like they were on familiar territory.

The alien soundworld of Ramifications and Webern’s dense, expressionist Five Movements, op.5, drew sharply etched performances, full of teeming detail and dramatically stark contrasts. Morton had done his own arrangement of the Debussy String Quartet for the 12-strong string ensemble, and although the work gained much in terms of richness and depth of sound on the larger canvas, there was a certain loss in definition, and some of Debussy’s startling quartet textures sounded a bit ordinary when played by the bigger group. It was a gloriously vivid performance, though, and a remarkable display of the ensemble playing as if with a single mind.

The Adagio from Bruckner’s String Quintet took us back into wallowing Romanticism, with a performance that although rich and intense was also rather solid, and a string Sinfonia by the 14-year-old Mendelssohn sparkled with brittle articulation. Soloist Morton took the concluding Bach Concerto at a hair-raising speed, but there was no denying its vigour and energy.

Rating: ****