SCO: Saxophone Dreams with Jess Gillam
City Halls, Glasgow: 13/3/26
Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Ben Glassberg (conductor); Jess Gillam (saxophone)
The night of 13th March brought the third of three outings for the last ‘New Dimensions’ programme of the season, titled ‘Saxophone Dreams’ and featuring charismatic Cumbrian-born saxophonist Jess Gillam with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, to Glasgow’s City Halls. Currently Music Director of Opéra de Rouen Normandie, stylish British conductor Ben Glassberg conducted (and introduced parts of) the programme. The concert was fairly well-attended.
The concert opened with a 2019 joint commission by the SCO, Orchestre National de Lyon and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, from Anna Clyne, when the composer was the SCO’s Associate Composer, titled ‘Sound and Fury’, a reference to Macbeth’s final soliloquy near the end of the play. The piece opens with helter-skelter scurrying strings, swirling winds, a stuttering muted trumpet and a scampering marimba all joining the frantic dash of colour, with fragments of melody from Haydn’s Symphony No.60, some of it sounding parodic of a hymn tune, winds tooting like the car horns in Gershwin’s ‘American in Paris’, all with a chaotic Ivesian irreverence. A slower trudge had vaguely Middle Eastern flavours from the winds. An oblique quote suggestive of the dark opening of Bartók’s ‘Concerto for Orchestra’ introduced a Hungarian flavour and sensitised my ear, making the cheeky direct quote from the beginning of the Concerto’s ‘Intermezzo interrotto’ absolutely unmissable (and gleefully humorous). A recording over the PA of a female voice delivering Macbeth’s soliloquy “Tomorrow, and tomorrow …” played over atmospheric music with the stylistic elements already heard and a tolling tubular bell in the mix. The melodic elements fragment before a coda resumes the frantic dash of the opening, halted by 3 emphatic chords. An extremely entertaining, if slightly bonkers piece. What a concert opener!
In a slight change to the advertised programme order, a palate-cleansing contrast followed: African-American composer George Walker’s ‘Lyric for Strings’. Like Barber’s ‘Adagio’, it is a pastoral elegy created by extracting a slow movement from a string quartet (1946) and rearranging for string orchestra (1990). There are other parallels too, in particular a central climax where the emotion is heightened. The slow, tender, rather filmic main melody in triple time is exquisite, every subtle sinuous turn finding a new harmony that shapes a change of the shade of mood, not unlike Vaughan Williams in the slow movement of the Fifth Symphony. I was interested to read that both Barber and Walker studied composition under Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute. A first hearing for me of a gorgeous piece. It was well-received by the slightly puzzled audience.
It was Jess Gillam’s turn to come to the stage for the first of three works on the programme featuring solo soprano saxophone: Hong Kong-born British composer Dani Howard’s 2025 Saxophone Concerto, written specifically with Jess in mind. Energetic quasi-minimalist arpeggiated burbling opens in the winds and strings. The soloist holds some long timbrally-shaped high notes before joining in the athletic fray. The music of the first movement is exultantly tuneful, driven and syncopated, with an exciting finish. The slow movement is more contemplative and nocturne-like, with contrasts of light and shade and an improvisatory cadenza-like soliloquy from the saxophone and some atmospheric effects, notably from vibraphone. After a build-up of tension, the movement ends morendo. The finale is launched attacca by the soloist heading off like a rocket, joined by the orchestra in a playful fusion of the moods and elements that have come before, including a more contemplative section, finally building to a big virtuosic finish. A super piece with phenomenal virtuosity from the soloist and the customary great concertante responsiveness from the orchestra.
During the interval, the percussion, brass and winds were cleared away. We were back to strings only for Caroline Shaw’s ‘Entr’acte’, a third live hearing for me since June 2022. The first hearing was also the SCO Strings. I wrote then that: ‘Entr’acte’ is a 2014 adaptation for string orchestra of a short 2011 string quartet. Rooted in the classical minuet-and-trio form, it departs quickly into a very different alternative reality sound world, exploiting various string effects like artificial harmonics, percussive pizzicato, col legno and brushing the bow along the strings instead of across. A truly magical work, with the SCO Strings up to all its technical challenges. No change 4 years later. In October 2024, I heard the piece from the equally beloved BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. I can add the following, adapted from that review: ‘Entr’acte’ was inspired by the composer’s reaction to a delicious key change in the minuet-and-trio of Haydn’s Op.77 No.2 String Quartet. Fleeting moments of minimalism are offset by Grieg-like sweetness and contrasting elements of spooky surrealism. The closing morendo pizzicato strummed chords on Caroline Dale’s cello were spellbinding. Excellent.
Jess returned to the stage for Manchester-born jazz flautist, pianist and composer Dave Heath’s 1995 homage to Scotland, ‘The Celtic’. Originally written as a 3-movement violin concerto for Clio Gould, former Music Director of the (then) ‘BT’ Scottish Ensemble (the current incumbent is her husband Jonathan Morton) when Dave was ‘Composer-in-Residence’, it was adapted for solo soprano sax at the request of saxophonist Gerard McChrystal. In the first movement ‘Ceilidh’ mysterious strings give way to an energetic Scottish reel, with great interplay between the soloist and string orchestra and a little syncopation, gradually becoming more raucous and inebriated, concluding with a simple cadence. The slow movement, ‘Lament for Collessie’ emulates Scottish “songs of separation” with a melody not unlike that of ‘Ae Fond Kiss’, referring to when the composer and his family had to move back to London from the Fife village between Auchtermuchty and Cupar, past which I drive every day when covering the East Neuk Festival. A lovely conversation between Jess’ sax and Jessica Beeston’s viola became quite impassioned and nostalgic in the middle before subsiding to a morendo close. The finale, ‘The Wee Cooper of Clapham’, celebrates Clapham-based flute-maker Albert Cooper, who had turned 70, with a Scottish fast jig ‘The Wee Cooper of Fife’ (as well as a pun on Cupar, Fife). A joyous romp with nice interplay between soloist and strings and a fast coda. A tremendous hoot to play and to listen to.
The final programmed work for soprano sax and strings was by Geordie saxophonist, composer, producer (and Jess’ former teacher) John Harle. ‘RANT!’ is a musical portrait of Jess herself, assembled from a collection of Cumbrian folk music. A slow wistful introduction leads to a set of energetic reels featuring playful conversation with Stephanie Gonley’s violin and some slap bass effects from the cellos, morphing to a set of jigs with similar interplay. The cellos weave the opening melody into the texture before a final brisk rhythmic syncopated reel drives through to an upward sweeping conclusion. Thrilling.
There was a wild solo encore, which sounded Hungarian, but was more reel than csárdás, with more than a hint of klezmer. I was reminded of Jewish reels from the Bucharest community. Fabulous.