Lunchtime Concert review, Perth Concert Hall

Feb 16 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE latest Lunchtime Concert was a very pleasant diversion presented by soloists of the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, who gave a super performance of three jazz-influenced pieces by Stravinsky, Bartok and Milhaud.

The soloists were Elizabeth Layton, leader of the BBCSSO, Yann Ghiro, their principal clarinet, and pianist Scott Mitchell.

They opened with Stravinsky’s Suite from The Soldier’s Tale. This short arrangement of five movements for violin, clarinet and piano captures all the quirky moods and complex rhythms of the original, whilst maintaining all the music’s effectiveness and popular jazz-inspired idioms.

Elizabeth Layton and Yann Ghiro were perfectly attuned from the opening movement, with a blend of staccato violin phrases against longer mellow tones of the clarinet, whilst Scott Mitchell’s piano accompaniment perfectly punctuated the phrases with repeated percussive effects.

The sinister tone of the tango had a demonic slant, whilst the following waltz and ragtime were delightfully interpreted with Stravinsky’s humour always prevalent. Even the final Devil’s Dance, which is full of crashing harmonies, and accompanied by a moto-perpetuo rhythm, made the music feel there was always a glint of humour in the writing. Here the balance of the trio was perfect and their obvious enjoyment was contagious.

Bartok’s Contrasts consists of three Hungarian dances that originate from a commission by the ‘king of swing’ Benny Goodman and it is the clarinet that takes a prominent role in the first dance. Yann Ghiro played with great style that ensured the jazz inflections were always prominent and the numerous technical challenges easily contained, especially the cadenza at the end of the movement, which was superbly played.

The middle dance is a typical Bartokian ‘night-music’ movement, full of haunting motifs where the violin and clarinet contrast their individual sonorities whilst the piano ‘rumbles’ its accompaniment in the background. The trio created a wonderful eerie atmosphere before the fast and furious final movement began. This was a ‘Dance Macabre’ complete with scordatura violin and a wonderful cadenza, played with great aplomb by Elizabeth Layton, racing towards its joyful conclusion.

The final piece by the trio was Darius Milhaud’s Suite Op 157b, a delightfully lyrical work full of melody and characteristic bonhomie. Here again the style of the Latin and jazz influences were predominant with the players forming a splendid partnership that brought out the joyful lustre of the work, completing an elegantly presented concert by three soloists who combined perfectly together.

Peter Rutterford