EIF: Hebrides Ensemble with Brett Dean
Queen’s Hall - 20/08/22
The forenoon of Saturday 20th August brought the Hebrides Ensemble and Australian guest conductor/violist Brett Dean to the Queen’s Hall in a programme of works by Richard Strauss, Brett Dean himself and Johannes Brahms.
The concert opened with a 1996 arrangement for nonet by Brett Dean of Richard Strauss’ tone poem ‘Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche’. Scored for 2 violins. viola, cello, double bass, flute/piccolo, clarinet, bassoon and horn, there is nothing remotely reductive about this arrangement. Like Schoenberg in his many similar arrangements for small ensembles of works by Bach, Schubert, the Viennese Strausses, Mahler and others, the challenge to find alternative instrumentation to realise the spirit of the original is fully and ingeniously met, almost always enhancing the transparency of the texture, and allowing the audience to appreciate detail hitherto often concealed. The tale of the exploits, mischievous and romantic, of the medieval prankster, and his ultimate delivery to rough justice, unfolds with Chaplinesque humour and pathos and more than a passing nod to the cartoon music of Scott Bradley. The performers stood, apart from the cellist seated on a raised podium and the bassist perched on the customary stool, so their heads were at the same level and the magic of chamber music could (and did) happen. This is a super piece to open a concert and it was brilliant to hear.
Brett Dean’s ‘Recollections’, a 6-movement piece scored for piano, violin, viola, clarinet, horn, cello, double bass and percussion (which included vibraphone and tuned gongs), explores aspects of memory and the emotions prompted by the evocation of memories of different kinds. The movements are colourfully titled Essence, Don’t Wake Mother, Dead of Night, Relic, Incident and Locket. The players were seated, while Brett Dean conducted. Not without humour, the work also has evocations of unseen terror, suspense, mischief, yearning and nostalgia. Plenty of special instrumental effects are employed, like col legno, flutter-tonguing, pitch-bending, use of a soft drumstick to tap the strings of the bass while its bow stroked a bar of the vibraphone. An engaging and entertaining piece, it was enthusiastically received by the Queen’s Hall audience.
After the interval, the final work was Brahms’ glorious ‘String Sextet No.1’, with Brett Dean playing second viola. With two each of violin, viola and cello and Brahms’ often dense scoring, the sound world can sound plummy and avuncular, but with the confidence and sense of heroic endeavour in the themes from the very beginning, to say nothing of the ingenuity of the thematic development, this does not seem to matter and the overall effect is of a warm inner glow. This music demands sympathetic ensemble playing and warm rich tone, both of which it received in spades. And, when the exposition repeat is observed, you get to experience it all over again – scrumptious! The pizzicato of the first movement coda was equally magical. The first viola introduces the stoic minor-key theme for the “slow” movement variations, a chance for Brahms to display his inventiveness in this form. The fifth variation, suddenly in the major key with much lighter texture, has a wistful sweetness and is one of my favourite moments in all music – it was exquisitely played. The Ländler-like scherzo, reminiscent of that in the Second Serenade Op.16, with a faster central section and exciting coda, was sprightly and effervescent. The finale, Poco allegretto e grazioso, seems to be presenting a theme for more variations, but turns out to be a delightfully leisurely rondo, with cleverly inventive episodes, played as if we were discovering them anew. The honour of starting the coda falls again to the first viola, who sets off at a trot, with the others scampering after to the joyous conclusion of a great work and a super concert – and, I may gladly add, a well-attended one.
Cover photo: Ryan Buchanan