Reviews June - September 2010

Autumn Classics Tour, September 2010

"...the central showpiece was the Flute Concerto in A Major by C P E Bach, which is not only wonderfully melodic but very fast and requiring superb breath control from soloist Alison Mitchell". **** The Herald Read review 

SCO at the Edinburgh International Festival 2010

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, September 2010

"...The SCO, directed by Clark Rundell, produced a convincing Hollywood sound..." **** Edinburgh Evening News Read review

Robin Ticciati makes EIF debut with Rebel, Poulenc, Bizet and Volans, August 2010

"Conductor Robin Ticciati and the SCO did a splendid job bringing it into gentle life. And in the context of a programme that emphasised the starkly original, with Rebel’s Les Elemens, the hormonally exuberant, in Bizet’s Symphony in C, and the quirky, in Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Volans’s symphony sat comfortably: an oasis of calm." **** The Herald Read review

"...superbly played by the orchestra..." ****The Scotsman Read review

"...Ticciati and the orchestra provided well judged and dramatic accompaniment..." Where's Runnicles? Read review

"...This sets the seal on a highly successful first season as the SCO's Principal Conductor..." MusicWebInternational Read review

Idomeneo, August 2010

"Norrington, seated throughout, gave the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus room to articulate detail, yet each scene built into a larger shape." ***** Financial Times Read review

"...The SCO Chorus were just the right size for this music and sang briliantly with articulation...underpinning all of this was the playing of the SCO, a crack Mozart team who own this music..." MusicWebInternational Read review

"Finally the musicality and athletic precision of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra had an added bloom and warmth in Usher Hall, and Norrington's balances were impeccable..." The Berkshire Review for the Arts Read review

"This was an interpretation of great violence as well as great beauty, played with a combination of high drama and fastidious detail by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra." **** The Guardian Read review

"...Roger Norrington filled the breach by leading the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, fortified with period horns and trombones, in a performance dedicated to the late conductor that respected period-instrument incisiveness yet also achieved spaciousness and grandeur..." New York Times  Read review

"This glorious performance encapsulates everything that the Festival stands for, but in particular it makes the point that expensive, flamboyant productions are not always needed when the music can speak for itself in such an engaging and beguiling way." ***** The Scotsman Read review

"The SCO and its chorus were in tremendous form, super-alert...and extremely idiomatic and stylish." **** The Herald Read review

"...the orchestra were on sparkling form..." Where's Runnicles? Read review

SCO at the BBC Proms, August 2010

"The Czech composer's Wind Serenade went beautifully, with music-making of charm and crispness." **** The Guardian Read review

"They sang their hearts out in the arias of the Gran Partita, K361, tellingly defined by Boyd as an opera for wind ensemble equal to the collaborations with Da Ponte or The Magic Flute." TheArtsDesk.com Read review

Highlands Tour, July 2010

"The SCO is known for the flexibility of its playing – in this instance that meant a small-scale account of Mozart's mighty Jupiter Symphony in keeping with the intimate surroundings of Strathpeffer's Victorian spa pavilion." *** The Guardian

East Neuk Festival, July 2010

"The Scottish Chamber Orchestra responded in kind, lofting Vaughan Williams’s soaring lines into the vaults with a lovely combination of spaciousness and urgency." **** Daily Telegraph Read review

"This was really two concerts rolled into one: a programme of 20th-century string orchestra masterpieces with a concert of 16th-century English choral music in the middle." *** The Guardian Read review

SCO at Stirling Castle, June 2010

"It is a measure of the SCO's commitment to its summer touring schedule that the orchestra engages the same calibre of artist for concerts in often out-of-the-way locations as it does for its main season programmes."
**** The Guardian Read review