A rich and diverse programme from promising young musicians attending the UK’s most northerly centre of advanced music tuition.
Programme:
Concerto in D minor Op 9 no 2 - mvt. 1&2 – Albinoni (1671 – 1751)
Hannah Magill (oboe)
Shirley Magill (piano)
Last Spring – Grieg (1843 – 1907)
Thème varié – Chaminade (1857 – 1944)
Scott Manson (piano)
Sweet Sunset - Jan de Haan (1951 - )
Concerto in F Op 52 – mvt.2 – Krommer (1759 – 1831)
Hannah Magill (oboe)
Shirley Magill (piano)
Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d’Este – Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Scott Manson (piano)
Gabriel’s Oboe - Morricone (1928 – 2020)
Hannah Magill (oboe)
Shirley Magill (piano)
North East of Scotland Music School
Since 1975, the North East of Scotland Music (NESMS) has offered excellent tuition with specialist instructors for musicians of any age who have achieved a standard of Grade 5 or above or to those who are enthusiastic about achieving excellence.
We bring tutors from all over the UK to offer lessons for both instrumentalists and singers in a safe and friendly environment at our base located at 21 Huntly Street in the centre of Aberdeen. NESMS is a registered Scottish Charity, SC000197
For more information, please visit our website www.nesms.org.uk
Hannah Magill (oboe)
Hannah is in 4th year and attends Albyn School. Over the last few years she has had the privilege of scholarship lessons with Joe Houghton through NESMS. Hannah has passed her Grade 8 oboe with distinction and also plays flute and piano. She is a member of the newly formed Aberdeen City Orchestra Youth Ensemble and NYOS Development Orchestra.
Scott Manson (piano)
With a wide-ranging background in piano, composition, and flute, Scott Manson is one of Aberdeen’s most active young musicians. He studies at NESMS with Nigel Clayton and Joseph Long. His recent piano performance highlights include solo recitals at St Andrew’s Cathedral (Aberdeen), St Mary’s Cathedral (Edinburgh), and Haddo House. He will perform his next recital at Deeside Community Theatre, Aboyne, on March 19th. Scott is currently taking a gap year, during which he works at Aberdeen Science Centre and supports young musicians at NESCol and Sistema Scotland. From September, he will be studying on the prestigious Joint Course at the Royal Northern College of Music and University of Manchester.
Shirley Magill (piano)
Shirley is Director of Music at St Margaret’s School for Girls. She also plays the clarinet and is a keen arranger of music for orchestras and ensembles.
Review:
Thursday’s Lunchbreak Concert in Aberdeen’s Cowdray Hall featuring two first-class students from the North East of Scotland Music School was introduced by Colin Brockie, Manager of NESMS.
His introductions were both congenial and informative. His first introduction was for oboist Hannah Magill who was to be accompanied on piano by her mother Shirley Magill. They were to perform the first two movements of the ‘Concerto in d minor Op.9 No. 2’ by Tomaso Albinoni. In this work, the piano is filling the role of string orchestra and continuo. Shirley Magill has at least as much music as the oboe soloist and with bright and lively playing she gave a fine performance. However it is the oboe soloist who needs to take the spotlight and with a performance that was superbly clean and well-controlled, Hannah did just that. The first movement is fast flowing and the oboe player has to achieve that sense of uninterrupted flow which is exactly what Hannah did. Her phrasing captured the dancing rhythmic surges of the music with contrasting legato and staccato playing. The following slow movement featured steady long-held notes, perfectly unwavering and exciting trills.
Both were proof of splendid breath control.
Edvard Grieg’s ‘Last Spring’ originally for string orchestra was arranged for piano solo by the composer himself. I believe there is a song version as well. That was what emerged brilliantly from Scott Manson’s piano solo version. He fairly made the melody sing out on the piano. In addition, his use of rubato and varied dynamics, very well thought through, gave this music a fine song-like quality, so full of detailed variation.
‘Thème Varié’ by Cécile Chaminade, yes, she is a female composer, a good choice since yesterday, 8th March, was Women’s Day. A theme and variations full of rippling ornamentation contrasting with strong chords had both supreme delicacy and melodic strength in Scott Manson’s performance.
I loved the way he brought out the melody powerfully in the left hand.
‘Sweet Sunset’ by Jan de Haan was originally composed for flugel horn with brass band. There was just a hint of this in the music, especially at the very end, very much a brass conclusion. However this version for oboe and piano worked splendidly well.
Colin Brockie suggested that the ‘Movement for oboe and piano’ by the Czech composer Franz Krommer could well have been a dramatic opera aria and that certainly came through in the performance by Shirley and Hannah. There were long-held notes for the oboe and a succession of
ornamental repeated notes so well delivered by Hannah. In addition there was a fine sense of smooth fluency from the oboe in this piece.
Franz Liszt was an amazing pianist as well as a composer and his ‘Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este’ was piano virtuosity personified. Scott Manson brought the water sprays of the fountains magically to life. There were also gentle harp-like chords in the left hand, a lovely singing tune (Scott is
particularly good at that) and of course Liszt liked to show off so there are dramatic chords as well.
The concert finished with what Colin Brockie described as an ‘ear-worm’ that is to say a very infectious tune. Hannah gave us one of the most popular modern oboe melodies, ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ by Ennio Morricone. The audience seemed absolutely delighted with this piece. Dare I say that
Morriconi’s music is better than the film he composed it for? Hannah certainly sold it to us at full value.
ALAN COOPER
