Strathearn Music Society Review – Silver Keys Clarinet Quartet

Wed 27th September 2023

The first concert of another SMS season and the first storm of another autumn, so it was a fairly reduced audience to welcome the four clarinettists who form Silver Keys. Formed five years ago as a student ensemble at the RCS, this is a multinational group (Polish, Lithuanian, American and British) still based in Scotland whose enthusiasm for their instrument is plainly the driving force behind all they do. The line-up is three B flat clarinets and one bass clarinet (possibly one of the most versatile and under-rated of all orchestral voices?) which allows the occasional trio and duo to ring the changes. All four members have separate and thriving careers as soloists, chamber musicians, orchestral players and educators, but also find time to explore and expand the repertoire for this unusual combo by delving into some of the lesser known byways of musical history and presenting contemporary compositions in a wide variety of styles.

Their concert sought mainly to open fresh pathways for the receptive listener while at the same time acknowledging the need to entertain with the familiar. So alongside an introductory excerpt from Carmen, a Brahms Hungarian Dance and the evergreen When I’m 64 there was music by Ion Scarlatescu (1917), Fran Griffin (2017), Rika Ishige (2009), Guillaume Connesson (2012) and even a World Première by Glaswegian Ollie Hawker. The latter, entitled “The City Where No-one Reads Books” was a hypnotic and mesmerising cameo whose sparse and haunting textures betrayed more than a hint of Aaron Copland in its influences; the composer is billed as “talented if unusual” and here seemed to be exploring a nostalgic strand of the American urban landscape. These were all pieces which perhaps listeners would be unlikely to encounter again but which nevertheless enriched the moment and provoked a thoughtful and appreciative response.

Overall a large part of the Silver Keys essence may be experienced purely in the range and sound of the instrument itself, its capacity for sustained beauty and variety of tone and its unique rhythmic potential. From Mozart, through Weber and Brahms to the ages of Swing and Jazz, it has always been a source of delight, and in the loving hands of these skilled and able young players its future is surely both safe and exciting.