Highland Chamber Orchestra Preview

6 Aug 2004 in Highland, Music

Celebrating the Pictish Past

KENNY MATHIESON looks ahead to the Highland Chamber Orchestra’s performances of a work by a composer based for many years in the Black Isle

THE HIGHLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA was formed in 2000 to provide a performing outlet for many of the semi-professional musicians working in the Highlands, as well as an outlet for some of the younger talents emerging through the Highland Region Youth Orchestra and other local initiatives.

The orchestra aims to give four performances a year in various venues around the Highlands, and more recently became the ensemble in residence at Inverness Cathedral, working in association with the Master of Music there. One of their stated aims is to take orchestral music out to places where it is rarely heard. Thus far they have tackled their task with enthusiasm, commitment, and no little skill, and have already demonstrated that they are a valuable addition to the classical music resources available within the Highlands.

Susan Dingle is the Principal Conductor of the HCO. She has worked with the group since their inception, a connection which came about through her work with the Highland Region Youth Orchestra.

“The players have quite a diverse range of experience and abilities,” she told me. “Some of them come from a traditional music rather than a classical background. They make quite a different sound, especially string players, and it’s interesting helping them to adapt to a different style of playing.

“We have also tried to encourage players from the youth orchestra to get involved, and they often need a bit more guidance as well. We don’t have a lot of rehearsal time for obvious reasons, and that means they have to do a lot of work by themselves, and I have to rely on that preparation when we do get together.

“The orchestra’s leader, Donald Goskirk, played with the BBC SSO before he came up to the Highlands as a teacher, and having someone as leader with that professional experience is invaluable. It’s good fun, and it’s all great experience for me as a conductor. I learn a lot of repertoire, and I’m learning a huge amount about working with an orchestra.”

“… the music was very much inspired by the Pictish legacy still evident in the standing stones of the Black Isle today.”

Susan will stand aside when the HCO undertake their latest pair of concerts at the end of August. Her place on the podium will be taken by William Conway, the former principal cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He will be joined on stage by his wife, violinist Sarah Bevan-Baker, the soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G.

Sarah is the daughter of the late John Bevan-Baker, a composer and teacher who spent three decades living and working on the Black Isle. The HCO will take their first plunge into contemporary repertoire when they perform his composition ‘Fidich’ alongside the Mozart Concerto and Beethoven’s mighty ‘Eroica’ Symphony in these concerts.

John Bevan-Baker was born in Middlesex, but later moved north of the border, teaching in Glasgow and Aberdeen, and ultimately at Fortrose, where he settled with his wife, June, in 1964 (they had six children, all musical, although only Sarah took up music as a profession). He was always deeply committed to work involving community participation, and the choir he set up in Fortrose, The Black Isle Singers, is still active.

June Bevan-Baker confirmed that he would have been a committed supporter of the Highland Chamber Orchestra had he lived to see it formed (he died in 1994, but June still lives in Fortrose, and is looking forward to hearing ‘Fidich’ played there).

‘Fidich’ was the name for the ancient Pictish kingdom which encompassed much of Ross-shire, Inverness, Moray and Banff, and the music was very much inspired by the Pictish legacy still evident in the standing stones of the Black Isle today.

The piece was originally composed as part of an education project that involved working with primary children in local schools as well as creating a composition for the SCO. It was premiered in Tain in 1991, and although it has been performed elsewhere, it has not been heard in the Highlands since that time.

“Writing for a combination of amateurs and professionals was very much John’s forte,” William Conway explained. “We were able to stage a performance of his opera about the Brahan Seer in Fortrose three years ago, which was a wonderful occasion. John liked to write for people in a specific context. He wrote some fantastic shows for schools, including a setting based on ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ for combined school orchestra, professional orchestra and massed choirs.

“Composing tended to take second place to his teaching, but the family have said that getting to know me had quite a positive effect on his feelings about writing music. I was very encouraging, and commissioned quite a bit from him.”

The Highland Chamber Orchestra will perform at the Nevis Centre, Fort William, on Saturday 28 August (7.30pm), and Fortrose Academy on Sunday 29 August (3pm).