When all things connect...
Duncan Chisholm’s Strathglass Suite
Celtic Connections, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, 26th January 2013
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is famous for its exhibitory sights, but on the 26th January 2013 it resonated to the sounds of the Strathglass Suite.
The Strathglass Suite is the full band and orchestra interpretation of Duncan Chisholm’s Strathglass Trilogy (Chisholm's last three solo albums Farrar, Canaich and Affric).
Six years in the making, the Strathglass Trilogy is the musical soundtrack to the ancient Chisholm lands that have been home to Clan Chisholm and the Chisholm family for some 700 years.
As beautifully played and musically emotive as those three albums are, the renowned fiddle player and co-founder of Celtic folk and rollers Wolfstone always felt (and had previously hinted) that the music could be expanded with bigger arrangements and fully orchestrated sections.
And make a Celtic connection with a live audience…
Donald Shaw, founder member of Capercaillie and current Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, green-lighted the idea of an exclusive performance of the Strathglass Suite for the festival almost as soon as Duncan Chisholm suggested it.
The festival was celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013 and with Burns Nights taking place over the weekend (Scotland’s national bard is traditionally honoured on or around the 25th of January) it was a Celtic-ally connected win-win.
2013 is also the Year of Natural Scotland and, with Duncan Chisholm musically inspired by the lands of his ancestors and the country promoting the beauty of its own landscapes, the music could not have been a better fit. Or more naturally connected.
The musical tone of the evening was set by special guests The Pride of New York who presented a set of predominately Irish in origin reels, jigs and airs.
Individually the musicians – Joanie Madden (flute, whistle), Billy McComiskey (button accordion), Brian Conway (fiddle) and Brendan Dolan (keyboards) – are highly respected New York Irish artists, but as a quartet they are the pride of the city they hail from (hence the name, taken from a New York music critic’s comment).
The sound produced by the Pride of New York was tight and entertaining (leading to a deserved encore) but the performance from one of Scotland’s finest musical sons and his two-dozen fellow musicians was absolutely captivating.
The twenty piece string and brass orchestral ensemble, conducted by Garry Walker, brought some wonderful, additional musical tone and colour to the Strathglass palette (with arrangements by Scottish Opera’s Stephen Adam). They both led and complimented many sections of the Suite.
Duncan Chisholm’s own six-piece ensemble – Chisholm, Matheu Watson (acoustic guitar), Jarlath Henderson (uilleann pipes, whistle), Martin O’Neill (percussion), Ross Hamilton (electric bass) and Allan Henderson (piano, fiddle) were as good a modern sounding traditional band (with contemporary rhythmic overtones) as you could ask for.
Heralded by Jarlath Henderson’s plaintive call on the pipes and Duncan Chisholm’s poignant reply, the orchestra swept into what amounted to a five minute opening movement followed by an hour of mini-movements or song segues arranged around tunes from the Strathglass Trilogy albums.
On the aforementioned opening section you could hear a pin drop and as proof of just how captivating a concert this was, audience members were clearing their throats or repositioning themselves in their seats only between the songs when applause rang out.
One gentleman to my left excused himself during a particularly quiet and poignant moment so he could get to an annex of the museum, clear his throat without disturbing others and then come back to his seat.
I’ve been at concerts where audiences are incredibly appreciative and as transfixed by the music, but not one where the music and musicians garnered such respect.
The set was concentrated around the slower pieces and airs from the Strathglass recordings but with wonderful rise and fall from the orchestral ensemble.
The brass and strings also played counter-point to the melodies performed by Duncan Chisholm, which were sometimes played in harmony with Jarlath Henderson and Allan Henderson on pipes and second fiddle respectively.
Matheu Watson, a multi-instrumentalist and a talented musician in his own right (as are all the band members) was the perfect acoustic foil to Duncan Chisholm’s fiddle leads and the pair featured on what was both the most emotive moment of the concert and the conclusion to the show (other than the standing ovation call-back for a rock and reel encore).
Following an up-tempo follow on to the finale of the Suite, Runrig’s Calum MacDonald was introduced to the stage to read, in Gaelic, an excerpt from Neil Munro’s poem To Exiles (which features in all three of the Strathglass recordings).
As Calum MacDonald’s voice faded Duncan Chisholm, accompanied only by Matheu Watson, played a lament to express the poem’s words and meaning in music.
As the melancholic refrain rang out through the galleries and stone balconies of one of Glasgow’s most striking Victorian era buildings, I could swear I saw a tear drop from the fiddle bow.
But then it might well have been the one in my own eye. And I wasn’t alone.
It was a powerful musical moment and one that answered the question of why so many of Duncan Chisholm’s fellow musicians, musical contemporaries and those with an ear for true beauty and passion in playing cite him as one of the finest traditional players Scotland has ever produced.
And the greatest slow air fiddle player of his generation.
Ross Muir
January 2013
Duncan Chisholm’s Strathglass Suite
Celtic Connections, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, 26th January 2013
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is famous for its exhibitory sights, but on the 26th January 2013 it resonated to the sounds of the Strathglass Suite.
The Strathglass Suite is the full band and orchestra interpretation of Duncan Chisholm’s Strathglass Trilogy (Chisholm's last three solo albums Farrar, Canaich and Affric).
Six years in the making, the Strathglass Trilogy is the musical soundtrack to the ancient Chisholm lands that have been home to Clan Chisholm and the Chisholm family for some 700 years.
As beautifully played and musically emotive as those three albums are, the renowned fiddle player and co-founder of Celtic folk and rollers Wolfstone always felt (and had previously hinted) that the music could be expanded with bigger arrangements and fully orchestrated sections.
And make a Celtic connection with a live audience…
Donald Shaw, founder member of Capercaillie and current Artistic Director of Celtic Connections, green-lighted the idea of an exclusive performance of the Strathglass Suite for the festival almost as soon as Duncan Chisholm suggested it.
The festival was celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013 and with Burns Nights taking place over the weekend (Scotland’s national bard is traditionally honoured on or around the 25th of January) it was a Celtic-ally connected win-win.
2013 is also the Year of Natural Scotland and, with Duncan Chisholm musically inspired by the lands of his ancestors and the country promoting the beauty of its own landscapes, the music could not have been a better fit. Or more naturally connected.
The musical tone of the evening was set by special guests The Pride of New York who presented a set of predominately Irish in origin reels, jigs and airs.
Individually the musicians – Joanie Madden (flute, whistle), Billy McComiskey (button accordion), Brian Conway (fiddle) and Brendan Dolan (keyboards) – are highly respected New York Irish artists, but as a quartet they are the pride of the city they hail from (hence the name, taken from a New York music critic’s comment).
The sound produced by the Pride of New York was tight and entertaining (leading to a deserved encore) but the performance from one of Scotland’s finest musical sons and his two-dozen fellow musicians was absolutely captivating.
The twenty piece string and brass orchestral ensemble, conducted by Garry Walker, brought some wonderful, additional musical tone and colour to the Strathglass palette (with arrangements by Scottish Opera’s Stephen Adam). They both led and complimented many sections of the Suite.
Duncan Chisholm’s own six-piece ensemble – Chisholm, Matheu Watson (acoustic guitar), Jarlath Henderson (uilleann pipes, whistle), Martin O’Neill (percussion), Ross Hamilton (electric bass) and Allan Henderson (piano, fiddle) were as good a modern sounding traditional band (with contemporary rhythmic overtones) as you could ask for.
Heralded by Jarlath Henderson’s plaintive call on the pipes and Duncan Chisholm’s poignant reply, the orchestra swept into what amounted to a five minute opening movement followed by an hour of mini-movements or song segues arranged around tunes from the Strathglass Trilogy albums.
On the aforementioned opening section you could hear a pin drop and as proof of just how captivating a concert this was, audience members were clearing their throats or repositioning themselves in their seats only between the songs when applause rang out.
One gentleman to my left excused himself during a particularly quiet and poignant moment so he could get to an annex of the museum, clear his throat without disturbing others and then come back to his seat.
I’ve been at concerts where audiences are incredibly appreciative and as transfixed by the music, but not one where the music and musicians garnered such respect.
The set was concentrated around the slower pieces and airs from the Strathglass recordings but with wonderful rise and fall from the orchestral ensemble.
The brass and strings also played counter-point to the melodies performed by Duncan Chisholm, which were sometimes played in harmony with Jarlath Henderson and Allan Henderson on pipes and second fiddle respectively.
Matheu Watson, a multi-instrumentalist and a talented musician in his own right (as are all the band members) was the perfect acoustic foil to Duncan Chisholm’s fiddle leads and the pair featured on what was both the most emotive moment of the concert and the conclusion to the show (other than the standing ovation call-back for a rock and reel encore).
Following an up-tempo follow on to the finale of the Suite, Runrig’s Calum MacDonald was introduced to the stage to read, in Gaelic, an excerpt from Neil Munro’s poem To Exiles (which features in all three of the Strathglass recordings).
As Calum MacDonald’s voice faded Duncan Chisholm, accompanied only by Matheu Watson, played a lament to express the poem’s words and meaning in music.
As the melancholic refrain rang out through the galleries and stone balconies of one of Glasgow’s most striking Victorian era buildings, I could swear I saw a tear drop from the fiddle bow.
But then it might well have been the one in my own eye. And I wasn’t alone.
It was a powerful musical moment and one that answered the question of why so many of Duncan Chisholm’s fellow musicians, musical contemporaries and those with an ear for true beauty and passion in playing cite him as one of the finest traditional players Scotland has ever produced.
And the greatest slow air fiddle player of his generation.
Ross Muir
January 2013
