Festival Club / Main Auditorium, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 25 January 2009

Branford Marsalis

CAN THIS really be the same room that only a few hours ago housed the Festival Club, scene of extreme international musical conviviality? Yes, the decaying grandeur of the Quality Hotel is unmistakable; chandeliers sandblasted with dust, the carpet with a stickily adhesive quality.

But it’s a fine way to start Burns Night, listening to some of the finest pipers that Scotland, Ireland and Brittany can produce competing for the trophy which commemorates one of the most original Scottish musical talents of the last few decades. I’m here to see if anyone can outgun the formidable talents of Sylvain Hamon, winner of the first ever competition three years ago.

For fairness, each competitor plays a Breton dance suite followed by a March, Strathspey and Reel in the first half, and an Irish set in the second. Though some of the Scottish and Irish contestants have trouble making sense of the Breton pulses, it becomes apparent that the Bretons who effortlessly convey the enticingly danceability of their native tunes have some difficulty keeping to the strict tempi demanded by their selections from this side of the Channel.

Gordon MacReady, silver medallist at the Northern Meeting in 2006, takes his Breton suite at a spanking pace with tight, enviably crisp fingering, and Northern Ireland’s Ashley McMichael also impresses with his handling of the pulses, while his compatriot Jonathan Greenlees interprets their complexities superbly, following up with a springy March and a very sprightly reel. Chris Armstrong, Northern Meeting gold medallist returned to the competitive fold after a few years in the self-expression wilderness, delivers a massively impressive set in winning style.

Alexis Meunier, however, who has been competing over here for a decade, finishes tuning his drones with an entirely French smoothing of the hair and launches into some beautifully sharp chanter work on his native tunes which shows how it’s done, augmented by foot percussion which underlines the fact that these, like the Strathspey and Reel, began life as tunes to dance to. The melodies flow, smooth and liquid, and he deftly nails the March, Strathspey and Reel. He is followed by Hamon, whose pipes (by competition sponsors MacCallum) seem to have a sharper, more colourful sound than any other. His playing simply dazzles from the first note of his tuning runs, but he has trouble keeping to the strict tempos of the Scottish tunes. After the Irish section and a short deliberation by the judges, Alexis Meunier wins all three sections and the 2009 Trophy, while Willie McCallum is second and Hamon is third. With competitors like these, the future of piping in all three countries seems safe for now.

Walking past George Square that evening it would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the sound of choirs singing ‘Ca’ the Yowes’ and ‘A Man’s a Man For A’ That’, a street party to celebrate the Bard’s birthday. At the Concert Hall it’s a very different affair; the Homecoming Scotland Suite with the RSNO and a host of guests from the traditional and contemporary music scenes.

Seven sections, each with a different composer, demonstrate just how difficult it is to write for a full orchestra. Sally Beamish does this all the time, and demonstrates her mastery by crafting a filigree sound setting mainly using the string section to set off the pure jewel-like tones of Branford Marsalis’ alto saxophone.

Greg Lawson, first violinist in the SSO amongst other things, has worked long and hard to orchestrate Martyn Bennett’s ‘Liberation’, but even the presence of David Hayman as narrator, aided by James Mackintosh on percussion does not quite lift this to the ecstatic heights of the original. Or maybe that’s just the auditorium PA again…

Steve Forman, mild mannered bodhranist of the Ben Nevis sessions, revealed his superhero alterego of film score composer in the opening piece, which though truncated due to lack of rehearsal time, also successfully integrates orchestra and guests. With an occasional nod to Copland (Aaron, not Stewart) and John Williams, the dissonance of a pipe phrase is echoed in the brass, and the harmonies of the uillean pipes are continued seamlessly by the strings. That’s the way to do it!

Jazz maestro Tommy Smith has composed an ode to his native Edinburgh, which has some very sweet sax playing and even sweeter strings, a recurrent leitmotif of twelve sharp notes like the chimes of midnight and some emphatic tympanic crescendi. If you like this sort of thing, it’s evidently very good indeed but not entirely crowd-pleasing, unlike Chris Stout’s ‘Drive!’, where the Fair Isle fiddler appears very comfortable in front of a full orchestra, demonstrating the benefits of the classical course at the RSAMD. His guests include the delectable Catriona McKay on clarsach and the adorable David Milligan on piano, and the audience laps it up.

Aidan O’Rourke’s piece, Coriolis, provides a connoisseur’s dream as he and Chris Stout trade fiddle phrases. Using his trademark irregular time signatures and intense, driving use of repetition, the end result recalling the thundering minimalism of Philip Glass in his Akhnaten days. Not entirely comfortable, but very impressive.

The evening ends with Patsy Reid reprising one of the pieces from her ‘New Voices’ commission from last year’s Celtic Connections, Bridging The Gap, which explored all the different modalities of music. Elegant in glittering plum bugle beads, she plays the beautifully smooth, lyrical fiddle which has helped to bring Breabach to the fore, and all the evening’s guests return to the stage for the splendid finale.

It is better to reach for the stars and fail than to settle for the safely achievable; although not entirely successful by the strict standards of the classical music world it is a brave and worthwhile attempt, and deserves applause.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

Links

• Celtic Connections