Cumnock Tryst reviews: BBC SSO & Jess Gillam | Tryst Festival Chorus & The Wallace Collection
Saxophonist Jess Gillam opened this year’s Cumnock Tryst with a devilishly good performance, writes Ken Walton
BBC SSO, Jess Gillam & David Childs, Barony Hall, Cumnock ★★★★
Tryst Festival Chorus & The Wallace Collection, Barony Hall, Cumnock ★★★★
In his Saxophone Concerto, James MacMillan achieves a miracle of concision. The acid intensity of its 15-minute duration – a solo protagonist leading the string orchestra on a merry dance – is compellingly witty and pugnacious. In his Where the Lugar meets the Glaisnock, effectively a euphonium concerto, nostalgia for his native Cumnock exacts an expansive and poetic response.
After a golden aperitif of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, both works appeared side by side in Friday’s Cumnock Tryst orchestral concert, its mainstay being the BBC SSO Strings under the composer’s direction. Charismatic Saxophonist Jess Gillam took a quasi-Mephistophelean lead in the first of these, taunting her colleagues through feverish virtuosity, not least where MacMillan’s irreverent Scots dance parodies took flight. The queasy Gaelic Psalm-inspired calm of the slow movement offered magical respite.
The liquid flow of David Childs’ plaintive euphonium solo, unlocking the nostalgic imagery of the longer second concerto, may have signalled a major mood swing, but it was deceptive. For this is an allegory of two rivers that bow to the dictates of topography en route to their inevitable confluence. Transport Smetana’s Vltava to the Ayrshire hills and valleys and a similar musical adventurism applies, not least that euphoric sense of homecoming – a multi-textured Tippett-like halo of strings embracing the soloist’s blissful fulfilment.
Saturday’s concert was essentially a showcase for the Tryst Festival Chorus, joined by young singers from three Ayrshire council areas, and featuring core brass support from The Wallace Collection.
Standout performances included a resplendent Rutter’s Gloria and Ēriks Ešenvalds’ ceremonial Trinity Te Deum. US composer AJ Harbison’s specially commissioned How Can I Keep From Singing, though vocally effective, fell victim to awkward brass writing, inconsistent structuring and a consequentially troubled performance.
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