A NEATLY weighted programme by the Scottish Ensemble drew a telling contrast between the acerbic 20th-century resilience of Shostakovich and the elegance of Baroque masters Albinoni and Corelli. And, thanks to trumpeter Alison Balsom and Scots pian
ist Alasdair Beatson, the confection enjoyed a special coating of icing.
Balsom alone joined the stand-up string ensemble in her own arrangement of Albinoni's Sonata for violin and bass in D minor, playing a diminutive and complex trumpet that glistened with a purity of tone that was both imperial and ethereal. Her immaculate pitching of the uppermost registers was uncanny, eliciting Albinoni's soaring melodic lines with stratospheric ease.
Not everything went to plan for the ensemble, either in the Albinoni or the ensuing Rudolph Barshai transcription of Shostakovich's String Quartet No 8, a couple of its violinists momentarily laid off by an unlikely succession of collapsing pegs. Despite the side-show entertainment value, the music flowed as if nothing had happened, and the Shostakovich remained meaty and sinuously intense.
The big surprise of the evening was Beatson, a relatively new kid on the block, but a startling musician who brought his own idiosyncratic zest to Shostakovich's Concerto No 1 for piano, trumpet and strings. He sprang into action with positively overt eccentricity, striking up a potent double act with Balsom – devilish protagonist meets elegant diva.
If that overstated the parodic dimension of this work, it was nonetheless compulsive entertainment, not to mention a perfect foil to the suave delicacy of Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op 6 No11.
The full article contains 261 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
