SCO: Max Richter +
Usher Hall 22/10/26
David Brophy conductor
Mari Samuelson violin/director
Chris Ekers sound
Max Richter+ is the first of the SCO’s ‘New Dimensions’ concerts, which aim to showcase how genre-defying artists have blurred the boundaries between diverse musical worlds. The programme included reworkings of Beethoven and Vivaldi by Max Richter together with pieces by Phillip Glass and John Adams, two composers he cites as inspirations for his work. Both Richter and Glass are immensely prolific across a wide variety of minimalism, electronica and cinematic soundscapes. Richter recently received an Ivor Novello award for innovation in music, having “expanded what contemporary composition can be and who it can reach”. Indeed this was a sell-out concert in the Usher Hall with a noticeably younger audience than other SCO concerts.
The violinist/director for ‘Recomposed Vivaldi’ performed in the second half, Mari Samuelson, shared her experience of working over many years with Max Richter in a pre-concert conversation with Gordon Bragg, leader of the SCO second violins. She commented “his way of composing fits well into the film world – emotional in a quiet way – so you are drawn into it without realizing you’re in and without being able to get out”. She reflected on her instinctive need to understand his music on a visceral level, describing ‘Recomposed Vivaldi’ as a “cool version of ‘The Four Seasons’.” Max Richter has stripped away 75% of the original, keeping the basic structure and the melodies he likes. He’s very good at writing music that provides propulsion through the base line as in pop songs.
Gordon Bragg also reflected on the SCO collaboration with Max Richter six years ago at Celtic Connections, where his music drew a highly emotional response from both players and audience. In the rehearsals for this concert, the orchestra worked with Chris Ekars, the sound engineer, who has worked with Max Richter and Mari Samuelson to realize performances of ‘Recomposed Vivaldi’ and many other pieces around the world. Players are miked up so the sound engineer can add electronic sound effects both before and during the performance. Ekars’ skill lay in amplifying and mixing the sound to fill the Usher Hall without intruding on sound quality.
David Brophy, the conductor, bounced onto the stage wearing black polo neck under a black suit with ivory metallic shoes, that alone signalled we were in for something other than standard classical fare. The three pieces of the first half would be played through without a break so Brophy took time to explain what we were going to hear. He began with the percussion section playing the final bars of ‘The Chairman Dances’ by John Adams – a combination of kick drum, top hat (cymbals),two paper-covered brushes rubbed together and a snare drum played with a wire brush. Together these recreate the sound of a gramophone needle reaching the end of a record and crashing against the label. Before that we would hear ‘Opus 2020’ by Max Richter, a work written to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. Richter selected 2, 3 or 4 note sections from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E, Op109 to create ‘tape loops’, which he assigned to different instruments in the orchestra. The following piece, ‘Company’ by Philip Glass, is based on a prose poem by Samuel Becket, in which the author asks why life is so miserable. There is an underlying optimism: if you think your life is miserable, then do something about it. Glass’s music reflects this.
To the performance then, and “propulsion through the base line” that Mari Samuelson described was evident in all three pieces and served to tie them together. ‘Opus 2020’ began with slow delivery of a three-note loop, E C# B, in the strings, accompanied by soft intermittent drum beats. There was a breath-like quality to the sound. Layers of complexity were added in cellos, horn and wind instruments before the piece subsided, giving the last word to Beethoven in the final movement of Piano Sonata, Op 109. ‘Company’ was the shortest of the three pieces with arpeggiated rhythms across a narrow range of chords. Each of four sections was labelled with a metronome mark to indicate slow or fast speed. I found this more accessible when I listened to it again on the SCO Spotify play list (see link below). ‘The Chairman Dances’ is described by John Adams as “an out-take” from his first opera ‘Nixon in China’. The setting is a banquet for the Presidential visit to which Chiang Ch’ing, Madame Mao, has been excluded. She gatecrashes the occasion and invites her husband – present only as a large poster – to dance with her. He steps down and they begin to dance to music from a wind-up gramophone. Beginning with repetition of rhythmic and melodic elements across the orchestra, it breaks into a romantic foxtrot with a soaring string melody, works up to a loud cacophony of piano and brass, and dies away as the gramophone winds down.
After the interval, Mari Samuelson appeared in a gauzy black ballet-like dress to direct ‘Recomposed Vivaldi’ complete with energetic dance-like movements to accompany faster passages. The stage was set for the much smaller group of musicians, standing with microphones above them and also attached to their instruments. An impressive array of electronic equipment stood to one side of the stage. Behind the players were upright fluorescent lights, which changed colour to reflect the progression of the seasons: green, yellow, orange and abruptly blue for a chilly winter atmosphere. Each of the original concertos has three sections (fast-slow-fast). While keeping the original structure, Richter has selected both rhythms and melodies from these sections, sometimes keeping most of the musical material or reworking it so only glimpses of the original remain. This piece received a standing ovation from the audience in the stalls.
Max Richter + - playlist by Scottish Chamber Orchestra | Spotify