★★★★☆
How would you like to spend an evening as we leave a lethal pandemic and climate leaders discuss the future of humanity? How about an hour-long meditation on the inevitability of death and the inescapable darkness of mortality?
Shostakovich claimed that the purpose of his 14th symphony was to make his listeners appreciate the beauty and vibrancy of life, but I’m not sure he really meant it. The symphony is a cycle of 11 songs that all contemplate life cruelly snatched away. By the end you’re left not so much invigorated as stunned on the edge of the abyss.
This Scottish Chamber Orchestra performance was certainly stunning, starting with the singers. Peter Rose has a bass voice that suggests fathomless depths alongside powerful lyricism. It grabs your attention and doesn’t let go, and his singing balanced the bite of satire alongside the poignancy of loss.
Elizabeth Atherton, the soprano, has a more austere voice — I can’t imagine what she’d sound like in Schubert — but her identification with the text is complete, and she brought each song to life as though it were a miniature opera, as compelling to watch as to hear.
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Shostakovich symphonies are bulky beasts: there aren’t many that a chamber orchestra like the SCO could perform, and the novelty factor might partly explain the passionate intensity with which they played. The strings veered from wistful nostalgia to frenetic energy and the instrumental solos acted as extensions of the texts’ emotions — particularly the heartbreaking cello in the suicide scene, or the basses that gave a chilling picture of loneliness in the prison.
Mark Wigglesworth, the conductor, held the tricky structure together with authority and vision, shaping it into three clear sections that cohered powerfully. However, his choice of companion piece was, to put it politely, puzzling. Mozart’s youthful Posthorn symphony is as sunny as Shostakovich’s is dark, but it’s also rather slight. The brass and winds certainly brought it to life, but Shostakovich dwarfed it and I’m baffled as to why Wigglesworth took all the repeats in the dusky but insubstantial second movement. As Shostakovich reminded us, life’s too short.