Music review: Nash Ensemble, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Nash Ensemble, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh * * * *
Yes, the opening bedlam – unleashed with head-banging venom by Nash Ensemble members Marianne Thorsen (violin), Adrian Brendel (cello) and Alasdair Beatson (piano) – was fearsomely arresting.
But as it dissipated, the music revealed its inner charm: a cocktail of mutating conversations: intimate and acerbic, loving and witty, as varied and unpredictable as MacMillan’s quicksilver thought process.
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Hide AdThen that ending: a ferocious crescendo of repeated notes on the piano, pile-driven by Beatson, beating the music into exhaustive submission and aching silence, except for the inadvertent interruption by a perfectly-timed police siren passing outside the Queen’s Hall.
Beethoven’s Trio for clarinet (Richard Hosford), cello and piano, and Dvorak’s E minor Dumky Trio inevitably slipped into the shadows either side of the MacMillan, at least in terms of temperament. As such, though, they were perfect bookends.
Beethoven’s cheery Trio was a breeze all the way to its coquettish theme and variations.
Dvorak’s Dumky smiled with folksy élan.