St Andrew’s Cathedral, Inverness, 1 September 2007

Scottish Ensemble

Karen Matheson has worked with the Scottish Ensemble before, both in recording her three solo projects and in concert at Celtic Connections, but this was a rare opportunity to hear the combination live, and in the atmospheric surroundings of the Cathedral (with subsequent dates at Dornoch Cathedral and the rather more modest Ballachulish Village Hall).

The concert was part of both the Blas Festival and the Scottish Ensemble’s six-date Highlands & Islands Tour. Their other three concerts featured an all-classical programme which they dipper into here, but only after the Inverness Gaelic Choir had opened proceedings with a short set of intricate vocal arrangements on Gaelic songs.

Their superbly sung contributions included a setting of three verses of a much longer 16th century song commissioned from Inverness-born composer Stuart MacRae, who has also been commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble.

The Ensemble then opened their portion of the show with Grieg’s popular and appropriately folk-influenced ‘Holberg Suite’. The original programme listed Finzi’s ‘Romance’, but they had decided instead to move straight into the new work commissioned for this tour from Glaswegian composer William Sweeney, ‘Gabhail a Chreig’.

The piece was inspired by memories of a long walk the composer made in Coigach while a student at the RSAMD. The colourful, rhythmically complex music evoked a series of moods and impressions in highly effective fashion, and was accessible enough to be well received by an audience – a full house – not necessarily au fait with the vocabulary of contemporary composition, despite a fairly challenging musical language.

The Ensemble then closed the first half with a flourish in the final movement of Walton’s ‘Sonata for Strings’, which will be heard in its entirety in their forthcoming October tour as well as this Highland visit.

The Karen Matheson Band, in which the singer was joined by Donald Shaw on piano, James Grant on guitar and Ewan Vernal on bass, opened the second half with a short set, including a setting of Sorley MacLean’s ‘Calvary’ and some lively puirt a beul.

The Ensemble then joined them for a longer set that included both Gaelic and English songs (from Robert Burns through to James Grant) set to string arrangements, many by the late Kevin MacRae. They made a lush setting for the singer, even if they were no more than routine for the Ensemble. If it was a little on the bland side for these ears, she coped well enough with a very different challenge to that offered in her customary role with Capercaillie.

© George MacKay, 2007

Links

• Blas