Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Evening’s Dream is a RSNO musical deal with – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United Kingdom Hensel, Burton, Mendelssohn: Carine Tinney (soprano), Rosamond Thomas (mezzo-soprano), Christine Metal (narrator), RSNO Youth Refrain (Patrick Barrett, director), Royal Scottish Nationwide Orchestra / Thomas Søndergård (conductor). Usher Corridor, Edinburgh, 15.3.2024. (SRT)

Fanny Hensel – Overture in C main
James Burton – The Misplaced Phrases (Scottish premiere)
Felix Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Evening’s Dream, Overture and Incidental Music

The final time the Royal Scottish Nationwide Orchestra performed Mendelssohn’s full incidental music to A Midsummer Evening’s Dream was through the out of doors Edinburgh ComPetition of 2021 when each observe of reside music was like rain falling on a desert after eighteen months of drought. It’s completely attainable that the circumstances made me do not forget that live performance extra fondly than it deserved, however its 2024 iteration makes me assume that perhaps it actually was that good the primary time round as a result of, by way of the excellence of the enjoying, this live performance was a deal with.

Conductor Thomas Søndergård had an ideal ear for the stability of the rating, for one factor. The large tutti sections of the Overture didn’t overwhelm the delicacy of the fairy music and sounded way more like the other facet of the coin than a lurch into one thing completely different. The enjoying itself was prime notch all through, with the Overture’s 4 wind chords articulated with terrific precision, and terrific brass swagger over the Wedding ceremony March. If Søndergård paced the Nocturne slightly too brusquely then no less than it had lovely, glowing horn tone, whereas principal clarinet Timothy Orpen performed the mock funeral march as if he was freelancing with a klezmer band. The Scherzo bubbled like a glass of champagne, and the voices of the RSNO Youth Refrain sounded as mild as thistledown, ably supported by soloists Carine Tinney and Rosamond Thomas.

The one downside was the narration. I’m usually an enormous fan of getting the textual content alongside the whole incidental music to offer it some contextual punch, however Christine Metal’s flat-as-a-pancake supply was an excitement-killer. (Studying off the script in not way more than a monotone, she gave the sturdy impression she’d somewhat be someplace else, a extra profitable gig, maybe?)

Musically talking this Dream was very good, nevertheless, and it made sense to pair it with a piece by Mendelssohn’s sister, an overture that had a dainty introduction earlier than scampering into an thrilling major allegro. The orchestra paid it the praise of taking it critically, and the bloom on the sound was pretty to listen to. Possibly a number of the piece’s thematic growth was slightly restricted, however no extra so than you’d hear in the same work by Weber or Schumann, who had been much more skilled than she, and general it’s remarkably assured for a primary purely orchestral work.

The RSNO Youth Refrain had been again centre stage for the Scottish premiere of James Burton’s The Misplaced Phrases. Primarily based on Jackie Morris’s fashionable guide, Burton’s track cycle units some terrifically evocative verse which the youngsters of the refrain sang with wide-eyed enthusiasm and no small diploma of talent. It’s a testomony to how effectively Patrick Barrett has educated them that not a single consonant was wasted, and that chewy vowel sounds on phrases like ‘newt’ had been exploited for all they had been value. Burton’s music is straightforwardly interesting and has all of the directness of a TV or film soundtrack with harmonies used solely hardly ever in order that they make a big effect after they seem. All advised, successful!

Simon Thompson