New Year in Vienna Review

Dundee Courier
Garry Fraser
9 January 2012

Just what is the attraction of a New Year Viennese concert? The answer’s quite simple…everyone likes a good tune, with music that needs little if any concentration. In short, it’s a relaxing and most enjoyable evening out and one that is made even better by the performance of the orchestra. Take a bow, Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Thursday night’s performance in Perth’s Concert Hall was the best I’ve heard them in this guise, the epitome of excellence in every facet and capturing the mood and unique style that is the Viennese music from the Strauss family and their contemporaries.

A major player in all this was conductor Nicholas McGegan, an affable mein host with an impish and relaxed take on the proceedings and an enthusiasm that carried all before him. His interpretation of the music ensured that there was no dull re-run of old favourites, injecting instead a freshness that made the evening fly by.

As guest soloists go, Elena Xanthoudakis takes a lot of beating, perhaps not in the evergreen Vilia which was on the slow side, but in her excellent portrayal of a coquettish soubrette of the second half of the concert. Carl Zeller’s Don’t Be Cross was carried off with an engaging pertness and her Laughing Song contained some inventiveness that made it one of the best I’ve heard. Unfortunately, her Czardas Princess encore lost a bit in presentation, at times losing out to a full orchestra.

Excellent solo spots were peppered around the orchestra, from champagne popping percussionists through string brass and wind. Collectively, the SCO swept all before them, positively enjoying every minute … even the middle strings who never seemed to grow weary of their relentless second and third beat “cha cha” which followed the bass “oom”. The range in volume from pianissimo to double forte in the Pizzicato Polka was perfectly judged and the more jocular items – Track Free! Quick Polka! And Express Delivery Galopp, both from the pen of Eduard Strauss – raised a collective smile from a packed hall. The Blue Danube flowed effortlessly and dreamlike, but by then the orchestra were simply continuing the fine form that had started at the concert’s outset. Get the overture to Die Fledermaus wrong or badly interpreted, and you’re in big trouble. Thursday evening saw quite the opposite, a performance that would have made Strauss the younger proud had he been involved and one that set the benchmark for a high quality display.