Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN CHORAL SOCIETY
Alan Cooper
15 March 2009
MUSIC HALL, ABERDEEN
Once again Aberdeen University Music chose the Music Hall as the venue for their large scale spring concert. It was especially heartening to see the correspondingly large audience it attracted this year. The Gallery was filled to capacity for this special event, spectacular as always. Roger B Williams conducted the Chorus and Orchestra. He had chosen to juxtapose two popular but remarkably unusual works. The first, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini forces a complete rethink of the idea of a piano concerto crossbreeding it with theme and variations; the second, Ein Deutsches Requiem by Brahms, is a sacred but non liturgical recasting of the Requiem with strong symphonic overtones. Except perhaps for Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, it is surprising that few if any later composers took up these ideas of expanding musical forms in new directions, indeed you have to go back to Berlioz to find another great composer who experimented in these directions, (think of his Harold in Italy or Romeo and Juliet).
Concert goers who have attended University events over the years will, like me, have been delighted to welcome back Murray McLachlan as soloist in the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody. I remember his remarkable odyssey through the complete sonatas of Beethoven some years ago. His resounding chords in response to the orchestra’s bright launch of the Rhapsody set the mood for a stirring performance. The opening variation was played with brilliant percussive strength and just the right spicing of good humour. Neither Murray nor Roger were taking any prisoners in this performance and it was rewarding indeed to take notice of how the mostly all student orchestra rose so proudly to the challenge never ever lagging behind. The upper string playing was particularly fine and there were some excellent solos from the woodwind section too. It is amazing how Rachmaninoff manages to derive so many different ideas from only a couple of themes, the Dies Irae being perhaps a reference to the legend that Paganini is supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. The wonderful moment where the spiky Paganini theme is transformed into one of the most gorgeous melodies in the entire romantic canon just by turning it upside down is surely a mark of rare genius and in Sunday’s performance the orchestral preparation for the soloist’s magnificent entry with this magical theme was accomplished with rare melting beauty. Well done the University Orchestra!
The choral singers were certainly the stars of Ein Deutsches Requiem. Almost throughout the entire work, the pure soaring transparency of the sopranos gave a marvellous glossiness to the choral sound. They never tired. The altos brought out the darker turns of Brahmsian melody with exceptional smoothness and the men too rose splendidly to the challenge in the short section for male voices only. The orchestra had to work hard in this piece and once again the upper strings played especially well.
Brahms does not give the baritone and especially the soprano soloist all that much to do in this work but Irene Drummond and Jeremy Huw Williams both made a remarkable impression in what are crucially important parts of this monumental work.
Is it a Requiem or is it a Choral Symphony? Either way it was clearly a very personal work and close to the composer’s heart.