Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Schumann chamber music

Queen’s Hall, 22/2/2026

Maxim Emelyanychev piano, Stephanie Gonley violin, Marcus Barcham Stevens violin, Max Mandel viola, Philip Higham cello

Schumann chamber music played by four of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s finest string players, and their conductor, keyboard virtuoso, Maxim Emelyanychev on piano, attracts a nearly full house to the Queen’s Hall for a matinee concert on a bright blustery afternoon. The string players are section principals, Stephanie Gonley, Leader, Marcus Barcham Stevens, principal second violin, Max Mandel, principal viola and Philip Higham, principal cello.  Well-used to working together in the full orchestra, and in smaller ensembles, they’ve developed that collaborative second nature which works through nods and eye contact to deliver precise performances of the most difficult music.

Maxim Emelyanychev introduces us to a ‘special guest’, an 1888 grand piano, borrowed from Glasgow University. Made in London and in use in Paris, its earlier form of stringing means that its tone is softer and will work well with the gut-stringed instruments in use today.

Robert Schumann, a frequently troubled composer, wrote his Piano Quartet in E-flat and his Piano Quintet in E-flat in 1842, one of the happiest years of this life. Two years into his hard-won marriage to Clara and a year after the birth of his first child, he devoted this period to chamber music, and in these works probably had in mind the skills of his concert-pianist wife (the household’s main breadwinner).  The Quartet’s third movement andante cantabile may be the clearest celebration of happiness in these works: the immediately captivating melody, begins in the cellos and moves round the other instruments, later accompanied by elaborations on the piano. The ending favours the instruments’ lower notes, and Philip Higham follows the score’s instructions to tune his lowest string down. A glowing highlight of the afternoon. Two movements, the scherzo and the finale are marked vivace, and their effervescent movement are also convincing assertions of bonhomie.

The work’s first movement, however, balances sostenuto passages with the main allegro theme. Here and elsewhere in these works, there is a sense of a more reflective mood, holding in check some of the more cheerful expressions, especially in the sostenuto’s first thoughtful repeat. The players emphasise the contrasts by giving space to these slower sections.

Marcus Barcham Stevens is on second violin in the Quintet. The extra instrument provides a richer, more orchestral feel. David Kettle’s highly recommended programme notes remind us that the mid nineteenth century saw the development of chamber works from those suitable for amateurs in a domestic setting and those which were destined for the concert hall. The first movement is marked allegro brillante, and alternates appropriately brilliant sections of string and piano playing with a quieter theme for viola and cello.  We hear more from Maxim Emelyanychev’s ‘special guest’ piano, a softer tone perhaps, but equal to the dynamism required in the faster sections.

The second movement has two markings – in modo d’una marcia (like a march) and un poco largamente (slowly and broadly), and here Schumann exploits the difference between the sections, each repeated several times, to suggest a stormier mood which struggles against calmer influences. The march is initially tentative and halting, never approaching anything military or even funereal, and in its later appearances returning as an increasingly insistent and louder earworm. The interventions of a delicate string section with rippling piano accompaniment fails to dispel its unsettling effect. The players take time to explore these sometimes puzzling nuances.

The Quintet itself moves on speedily to another vivace scherzo, and the dazzling allegro finale with its upbeat exuberant conclusion. There were cheers before the interval and a further well deserved ovation at the end for this terrific performance.

Philip Higham plays Schumann’s Cello Concerto in the SCO’s Queen’s Hall concert on Thursday 7th May.