Reviews October 2010 - May 2011

Mozart Requiem

"Without question, the night, which also featured SCO musicians playing Mozart chamber music before the show and during the interval, belonged to the SCO Chorus for its shattering and profoundly moving performance of the Requiem. **** The Herald Read review

" This was Mozart at his magical best with orchestra, conductor, soloists and chorus combining, latterly in a performance of the Requiem that was enthralling, compelling and mouth-watering and upstaging any other performance of this marvellous work I have ever heard." Dundee Courier Read review

"As always with this orchestra, it’s the quality of the collective achievement that really matters, but the thing that impressed me the most about this evening was Gaffigan’s ability to get such a muscular sound from such a small-scale band." MusicWebInternational Read review

"An innovative programme the whole evening was a memorable tribute to the genius of Mozart's last compositions and duly appreciated by a packed house in the Usher Hall." **** EdinburghGuide Read review

"(The SCO Chorus) Brilliantly prepared by chorusmaster Gregory Batsleer, they sang with verve, energy and commitment." *** The Scotsman Read review

Italian Serenade

"The SCO is all that we would want from a professional chamber orchestra; their sound is delicately balanced with clarity and warmth and they perform with collective intimacy, as if playing personally to each and every listener." **** The Herald Read review

Symphonic Opera

"...the music came off the page with spirit and character. And it certainly did that in Mozart’s Haffner and Haydn’s Bear symphonies, while the Barber of Seville Overture went like a speeding bullet." *** The Herald Read review

"...a sparkling account of Mozart's Symphony No 35 in D major, "Haffner", with some nice brass contributions and crackling timpani pushing the last movement, with it's busy bassoons, to its playful conclusion". **** The Scotsman Read review

Musical Toybox

"And equally exquisite was the SCO’s precision-crafted performance, conducted by Knussen, a big man with a light, deft touch, of Debussy’s La Boite a Joujoux, a brilliant, but little-played set of charming miniatures." *** The Herald Read review

"Throughout the feeling was of transparency combined with spotlit precision, even in the tutti passages." MusicWeb International Read review

"There were some magical moments, particularly during the slow movement, when the exquisite interplay between Karttunen and the second cello solo - the SCO's excellent Su-a Lee - was utterly transcendent." *** The Times

Mozart at the Piano II

"His enthusiasm and passion was infectious, spreading to the orchestra who were in sparkling form." *** The Scotsman Read review

Faure Requiem

"...Robin Ticciati and his peerless band lavished thinking and playing of supreme sophistication and elegance..." *** The Herald Read review

"...this programme was interpreted with loving care and attention to detail by conductor Robin Ticciati and realised with precision and warmth by the superbly talented SCO musicians." **** The Scotsman Read review

"...Robin Ticciati controlled tempi and balance to little short of perfection". ***** Edinburgh Evening News Read review

"Under the expert guidance of Ticciati, the performance of the musicians, singers and soloists was superb - an absolutely engrossing interpretation of this beautiful work." EdinburghGuide.com Read review

New Romantics IV

"...the SCO's sharp strings bounced between acerbic and lyric under their incisive conductor Garry Walker..." **** The Times

"The conclusion of the movement, a still and haunting setting of Ye Banks and Braes, tenderly sung by Susan Bickley, and weightlessly accompanied by Walker and the SCO, broke my heart." *** The Herald Read review

"The SCO captured beautifully the subtle virtuosity of the delicately-detailed orchestral score." *** The Scotsman Read review

"Conductor Garry Walker got a measured performance of playful drones and overtones from the orchestra..." *** The Guardian Read review

"As the final concert in this New Romantics season this one confirmed the importance of contemporary music in the SCO's repertoire and reassured me that this is an orchestra that continues to push boundaries..." MusicWeb International Read review

"Full marks though, to the SCO and conductor Garry Walker for navigating their way through an extremely tricky score." Dundee Courier Read review

"...the SCO players achieved the perfect balance of precision in the obscure rhythms and passionate terror..." Bach Track Read review

Stravinsky: The Chamber Ballets III

"The SCO players are masters of this music and they brought the same techniques to Stravinsky’s underplayed 1947 Orpheus ballet for choreographer George Balanchine." **** The Herald Read review

"The darkness and overwhelming sadness of this fateful journey was beautifully evoked and paced by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and principal conductor Robin Ticciati." **** The Scotsman Read review

"...no-one could deny that vigour and life breathed through every phrase and the orchestra's virtuoso performance, both individually and together, was never in doubt". MusicWebInternational Read review

Zadok the Priest

"Everything simply gelled in the hands of Richard Egarr and an SCO playing at white heat, with a teeming virtuosity of articulation in the first movement of Bach’s Third Suite that was almost spectacularly beyond description." **** The Herald Read review

Chamber Concert - Francesco Piemontesi/SCO Wind Ensemble

"This was Schumann playing of the first order by a 27-year-old whose command of the music’s lights and shades was impressively assured." *** The Herald Read review

Prokofiev 'Classical Symphony'

"This programme of neatly-linked Classicism and Neo-Classicism was marked by clarity and streamlined grace. It’s stylistic home territory for the SCO, too, so altogether the alchemy really worked." **** The Herald Read review

Stravinsky: The Chamber Ballets II

"I’ve only scraped the surface of the subtleties in this performance, which was sensational." ***** The Daily Telegraph Read review

"The eye of the storm was to be found in the SCO’s concert on Friday night with Robin Ticciati." **** The Herald Read review

"The SCO and principal conductor Robin Ticciati were in sparkling form in this dramatic programme that stepped into the worlds of opera, ballet and poetry." **** The Scotsman Read review

"They finished with more Haydn, this time the 96th symphony, The Miracle. As with The Hen last time, this bounced along wonderfully, the orchestra on as fine a form as they had been all evening." Where's Runnicles? Read review

"With Ticciati at the helm, the SCO take on added vibrance and his direction was one of pin-point accuracy from start to finish, and the final chord as it died away was a masterpiece of control." Dundee Courier Read review

"I’ve said before that Ticciati’s gift in this music is to unexpectedly highlight colours in the orchestral texture that the listener may not have noticed before, and so it was on many occasions tonight, especially the horn calls in the first movement development which had barely registered with me before tonight." MusicWeb International Read review

The Times also reviewed the Edinburgh performance, giving it four stars. The review is available by request only.

The Voice of a City

"Conductor Garry Walker held everything together and the various chorus masters and mistresses had obviously done their work well. Most important of all was the obvious enjoyment of all the young participants. **** Edinburgh Evening News Read review

"...the SCO focused on celebrating the capital's rich literary and musical heritage". *** The Scotsman Read review

CL@SIX: Drum Roll

"The cadenza for kettledrums that preceded it may have been gratuitous, but it created an atmosphere in which the subsequent performance thrived, as the smiles on the players’ faces increasingly confirmed." *** The Herald Read review

New Romantics III

"The SCO are typically well-respected for their faultless interpretations of chamber repertoire, attention to detail and precise orchestral sound. Friday evening’s concert entitled New Romantics was no exception." **** The Herald Read review

"It was a tour de force for the orchestra and the conductor." **** Edinburgh Guide Read review

Stravinsky: The Chamber Ballets I

"The Scottish Chamber Orchestra's mini series – Stravinsky: the Chamber Ballets – looks set to become one of this season's highlights." **** The Scotsman Read review

"But the net result, on Friday night, as Ticciati and the SCO unveiled their mini-series coupling a Stravinsky chamber ballet with a Haydn symphony, and adding in another contrasting work as a foil, was one of the finest SCO concerts in the history of the orchestra." **** The Herald Read review

New Year in Vienna

"A well-chosen programme and a well-chosen conductor are the requisites of a Viennese New Year – along with a well-chosen orchestra – and if Vienna failed on one of these counts this year, Edinburgh got all of them right." **** The Herald Read review

Christmas in Paris

"...First rate performances all round, with the orchestra ending the year as they had started it…in terrific form." Dundee Courier Read review

Vienna Centuries

"... a finely-gauged pacing and clarity of textures that made Brahms’s intricate motivic writing translucent in a vintage SCO performance where the playing and balance were in a class of their own". ***** The Herald Read review

Collard Plays Ravel

"...it was the playing that was so exhilarating. SCO articulation, outstandingly in the torrential passages of the finale, but actually everywhere, was mind-boggling, even to one familiar with that aspect of SCO performance. The balance within and between sections of the orchestra was of a numbing clarity." **** The Herald Read review

"...This was a magnificent and highly dynamic performance from the mysterious opening bars to the dazzling bassoon passages in the skittish last movement, taken at breakneck speed without missing a note or a beat." *** The Scotsman Read review

Handel's Messiah

"The late Sir Charles Mackerras's replacement, conductor Stephen Layton opted for the middle ground in yesterday evening's performance. His choir of forty-four voices coped adequately over a wide dynamic and expressive range." **** Edinburgh Evening News Read review

New Romantics II

"Not only did the Scottish Chamber Orchestra clearly excel working under Storgårds, they also seemed to be the perfect ensemble to accompany one of Schnelzer’s latest works, attentive and communicative as they were to Leleux’s needs as a soloist."
**** MusicalCriticism.com Read review

"...Leleux gave such a flawless, wonderful performance the composer was moved to rush up embrace him while the audience were still enthusiastically clapping." **** EdinburghGuide.com Read review

"Albert Schnelzer’s new oboe concerto, The Enchanter, receiving its UK premiere in the super-fluid, breath-defying lungs of oboist Francois Leleux, for whom it was written, lived up to its name." *** The Herald Read review

"The gripping symphonic argument of the opening vivace was feisty and performed with clean crispness by the SCO." **** The Scotsman Read review

USA Tour with Piotr Anderszewski

"...a great occasion that lived up to high expectations". Philadelphia Inquirer Read review 

"...Alexander Janiczek, conducting from the concertmaster’s chair in the Beethoven and the Mendelssohn (Mr. Anderszewski conducted the Mozart), drew a big, powerful, unified sound from the compact ensemble." New York Times Read Review

"It was clear, however, that the orchestra and pianist had together rehearsed a refined, taut interpretation." ArtsCriticATL.com (Atlanta) Read review

Mozart at the Piano I

"...this was big chamber music at its best." **** The Herald Read review (fourth review on page)

"...This was brave, thoughtful and quietly visionary playing." The Guardian Read review

"...Anderszewski's reverential almost prayerful approach captured the heart-melting beauty of Mozart's music". **** The Scotsman Read review

"More impressive was Anderszewski’s relationship with the piano, which he seemed to worship, extracting from it all manner of unusual nuances and dynamics as a result." Press and Journal Read review

"The music, too, fell slap bang into the laps of the SCO who are among the world's best when faced with music from the classical period." Dundee Courier Read review

New Romantics I

"...magnificently played by the SCO and conductor Baldur Bronnimann..." *** The Herald  Read review

"...the concert was a triumph for the orchestra..." Where's Runnicles? Read review

"...Throughout this and every piece conductor Baldur Brönnimann kept the music moving so that there was always a feeling of structure, even in pieces which can sometime make a virtue out of formlessness." MusicWebInternational Read review

CL@SIX - Youthful Genius

"...he seemed a captivating choice for SCO’s offpeak concert series, luring homeward-bound music-lovers to an accessible Edinburgh church whose acoustics are no deterrent". **** The Herald Read review

Opening Concerts of 10/11 Season
Mozart's Don Giovanni, October 2010

"A concert performance of one of the greatest works in the Western musical tradition is a big task to pull off, but to do it so triumphantly with such a great cast is truly exceptional. It bodes extremely well for the season ahead." MusicWebInternational Read review 

"But with the spirit of Mackerras presiding as a wholesome antidote to the vengeful Commendatore, tonight's performance emphatically put darkness in its place. It is not just that life goes on, but that another rewarding — and, one hopes, long term - relationship is taking shape nicely." **** musicalcriticism.com Read review

"...Natural horns, buoyant woodwinds and precisely articulated strings added to the vitality of the evening, in which Ticciati, conducting with poise and a gathering sense of the unfolding drama, made sure that his performers were constantly alert to the interplay between the characters." **** The Independent Read review

"A good night for Scotland’s hungry opera lovers – and for Ticciati" **** Financial Times Read review

"...the twin keys to its success were the suave, unforced, undemonstrative, classy conducting of Ticciati, and the superlatively responsive playing of the SCO whose strings were articulate and polished, as ever, but whose woodwind section I have never heard better". **** The Herald Read review

"A great start to the new SCO season." **** The Scotsman Read review

"...It is great to see the SCO restoring concert opera to their regular season..." Where's Runnicles? Read review