The Herald - Review October 2011
The Herald
Published 27 October 2011
Scottish Ensemble/Alasdair Beatson
Perth Concert Hall
25 October 2011
*****
By Michael Tumelty
NOT once, in over 50 years of total immersion in music, have Stravinsky and Mendelssohn seemed in any way compatible bedfellows.
Stravinsky had been round the block, had mud on his boots, dirt under his fingernails, and rhythmically crunched glass between his teeth, even in his so-called neo-classical music.
Mendelssohn, on the other hand, always struck me, as a young man, to be too clean. He was a composer, as I notoriously wrote and said at one point, who should have got out there and sinned a bit more. And as for the two of them together: well, chalk and cheese, oil and water, sin and grace, and any other antithetical agents you care to chuck into the soup.
And that is what is so life-affirming about this music business, as was confirmed on Tuesday by violinist Jonathan Morton and his Scottish Ensemble in superb form, along with outstanding pianist Alasdair Beatson. No matter the depth of your prejudices, somebody will always come along and flatten them, if you let them.
Why the combination should have worked as well as it did in Perth I cannot say: it’s not rocket science, but the precision of the Scottish Ensemble’s tight, biting performance of Stravinsky’s Concerto in D, and the graceful elegance of its second movement, together with the clarity of Mendelssohn’s Capriccio and Fugue, just created a perfect match.
And that match extended through Morton’s punchy arrangement of Stravinsky’s little Concertino and the magnificent, totally persuasive account of Mendelssohn’s youthful Double Concerto, with Morton and Beatson perfect foils in a gloriously discursive performance in which there were no losers; only winners, including the audience.
