press reviews

Lion: Fiddler Tam : The Red Red Rose : Spring Any Day Now  
Mungrel Stuff : Colin's Kisses : The Lion of Scotland
live reviews  

Lion

Nestling within this disc, primarily of Scots-accented baroque repertoire - all as exquisitely played as we have come to expect - lurks the recording of the year. David McGuinness's group, augmented by flautist Chris Norman, performs the Buzzcocks' Boredom with soprano Lisa Milne as lead vocalist. Thirty years on from the Spiral Scratch EP, she sings it in her own Aberdonian accent and with the ennui Howard Devoto and Peter Shelley could only aspire to. Everyone should own this disc. Other fine tracks include a reworking of Daniel Johnston's Walking the Cow and Astor Piazzolla's exquisite Coral.

The Herald

This CD offers a tremendous amount of pleasure, and it’s difficult to know how much to attribute this to Kellie’s talent and how much to assign to the verve and conviction of Concerto Caledonia. This crack ensemble makes the best possible case for Kellie’s music, and one hopes, probably in vain, for a second volume. John Purser’s liner notes for this disc are first-rate, as is the recorded sound, fine in CD format, and marvelously natural and unpretentious as a multichannel SACD; the instruments all have a strong presence and just the right amount of space around them. This music is by no means profound, but it is supremely entertaining, and delivered with aplomb.

The Earl of Kellie must be one of 18th-century Scotland's - and indeed Britain's - best-kept musical secrets. Listening to his Overture in C (effectively a three-movement symphony), it is almost impossible to believe that this strikingly energetic and eloquent music can really be the work of an almost-forgotten (and notoriously rakish) noble dilettante.

As a pupil of Johann Stamitz, Kellie was unusually well trained for an aristocratic amateur. Both the C major Overture and its companion in B flat are richly inventive and imaginative, abounding in the dramatic gestures beloved of the Mannheim school and in the nervous agitation and melancholy minor-key expressiveness of the fashionable Sturm und Drang style. It is easy to understand the latter work's great popularity not only in Britain but as far afield as Jamaica and St Petersburg. Concerto Caledonia's spirited, stylish performances do full justice to a delightful programme, which, in ranging from charming Haydnesque trios to a rollicking strathspey and reel, displays Kellie's exceptional talent and versatile musical personality. 

David McGuinness and his ensemble Concerto Caledonia have built a notable reputation for bringing historically important early music back into circulation, and doing it with as much a sense of danger as of style. The emphasis is on style in this fascinating cross section of works by the 18th-century composer and colourful Scots aristocrat, Thomas Erskine, the 6th Earl of Kellie. His studies in Germany introduced Erskine to the famous Mannheim school, in particular Stamitz, and that influence comes over loud and clear in the dramatic style of overture and quartet contained in this highly enjoyable disc.

Songs (featuring Mhairi Lawson) and trio sonatas offer further variety, as does the catchy Lord Kelly’s Reel - a quirky reminder of why Erskine was affectionately known as Fiddler Tam.

Vivaciously played, with full use of the fashionably extreme dynamics of the Mannheim style, Fiddler Tam is an attractive tribute to an unusual talent. 

**** The Herald 

Spring Any Day Now by David Greenberg and David McGuinness with Concerto Caledonia, is one of those curious albums that seems to define its own musical categories: narrow in some respects and bewilderingly broad in others. Its originators offer a partly helpful subtitle: "Music of 18th century Scotland and elsewhere." The cover features an IKEA rug, the credits explain that eight of the 14 tracks use the pitch A=415 Hz (a bit lower than the more usual 440Hz) and they thank "the various banks who through their zero interest credit cards, funded this recording without realising it. Ha ha".

As well as polishing the tarnished image of the financial services industry, Greenberg (baroque violin) and McGuinness (harpsichord) delight in finding tunes in the most obscure and unlikely places. There are pieces from William McGibbon's 1750s Collection of Scots Tunes; from Playford's Psalms and Hymns of 1671; from "the early repertoire of Finnish fiddle gods JPP"; from Robert Bremner's Curious Collection (c1762). No less attractive, though less baffling to me, are cover versions of tunes by Frank Zappa and Fred Frith. Their reading of Zappa's Echidna's Arf (of You), played by a baroque ensemble in an echoey schoolroom acoustic, strips the jazz-rock warhorse (originally heard on Roxy & Elsewhere) of its, er, Frank-ness, perhaps uncovering a secret celtic soul to the Mother.

Spring Any Day Now and Norrgarden Nyvla were originally found on Fred Frith's 1980 Ralph Records album Gravity. Greenberg, McGuinness and Concerto Caledonia give Frith's tunes a timeless, slightly faded grandiloquence.

It's not that often that you get the dubious pleasure of writing about music that combines elements of Scottish, Cape Breton and Finnish folk, avant garde guitarist Fred Frith and the grand old iconoclast, Frank Zappa, but today is one of those days. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it and, wait gentle reader...what a surprising treat it is too!

David McGuinness, director of the baroque ensemble Concerto Caledonia (also appearing here) has had a busy year. He's already turned in some gorgeous work, scoring and arranging strings for Paddy McAloon's lovely I Trawl The Megahertz and now he turns his expertise to this joint project with violinist and Cape Breton fiddler David Greenberg. The subtitle 'Music of 18th century Scotland and elsewhere' is fairly self-explanatory if a little misleading as several tunes fall on either side of the century. Strathspeys, jigs, reels and hornpipes from various sources are all fed through Greenberg and McGuinness's loving, yet idiosyncratic arrangements. Greenberg's training as a classical violinist adds a precision not usually found in such material, while McGuinness's deep knowledge of baroque forms makes his accompanying harpsichord, piano and harmonium fit the bill nicely.

The 'elsewhere' provides both light relief and food for thought. Spring... is named for a Fred Frith tune from his album Gravity and opens the set. McGuinness chose the tune for its optimism and, indeed, Frith's ability to forge faux-folk sits perfectly here as does his wonderful ''Norgarden Nyvla'', taken from the same album. Under the two Davids hands the latter becomes kind of Penguin Café meets Hungarian dance which (appropriately) blends seamlessly into ''Szapora From Kalotaszeg''; a medley by Csaba Okros. Finnish folk also gets a look in as the duo attack a trio of tunes from ''Finnish Fiddle Gods'' JPP's repertoire with gusto and consummate ease.

Added to these are originals from Greenberg and McGuinness and a stunning transposition of Zappa's ''Echidna's Arf (Of You)''. Inspired by The Ensemble Ambrosius' equally stunning performance of Frank's work on baroque instrumentation, this takes one of his trickiest set pieces from the classic 73/74 period and effortlessly blends it with a hornpipe. Most fitting, as Zappa himself loved the recorded work of Uffa Fox!

So, not your average collection of fiddle tunes then, and all the better for it. The mood is never sombre or too respectful and this pair should be encouraged to give us more. Another fine example of tradition in flux...

David McGuinness and his Concerto Caledonia never fail to add spice to a performance of early music. This release on EMI's Canadian label Marquis is no exception. The presence of violinist David Greenberg, at home in either jazz or Baroque, is reflected in a programme that doesn't limit itself to the 18th century - as the presence of Greenberg's own Swingin' Jim Johnson's Birthday Blues and Frank Zappa's Echidna's Arf (Of You) shows. It makes for robust entertainment alongside the douce Scots charm of early composers William McGibbon and Robert Bremner.

Mungrel Stuff

Late-baroque Italians try to sound Scottish, and their contemporaneous Scots try to sound Italian.  A treat.

Francesco Barsanti, born in Italy, lived and worked in Edinburgh for eight years.  His better-known compatriot Francesco Geminiani didn't set foot in Scotland at all.  Yet both were beguiled by Scottishness in music.  The different styles and approaches of the Italian and (obscure) Scottish composers represented here pleads for the first few listens to be undertaken without following the track listings.  Is this piece by a Scot trying to be Italian, or by an Italian trying to be a Scot?  Is it Scottish with added Italian suavity, or Italian with a Scottish tang?  The sublime - Barsanti's song arrangements, deftly inflected by Concerto Caledonia's players - rubs shoulders with the ridiculous - Lorenzo Bocchi's A Scots Cantata, the banality of whose guttural text is worthy of McGonagall.  Everything is infectiously played and sung.  Bizarre, but utterly compelling.

What a charming collection this is.  Concerto Caledonia explore the early 18th century vogue for Italian music that swept through Scotland and produced a "mongrel" hybrid of the "modern" baroque style of the south with the "ancient" airs of the north.  There are no masterpieces here, but this disc is played with such infectious enthusiasm that the musical shortcomings become part of the enjoyment.

Colin's Kisses

Oswald was an insatiable collector of Scottish traditional music and the examples presented by the splendid Concerto Caledonia deserve to be better known, as does the accomplished Italianate Serenata No. 4. An attractive yearning tenderness is constantly projected and the voicing, as in the expressive 'Ettrick Banks', brings alive the intrinsic grace of these timeless melodies. The Airs for the Seasons are especially notable. I hummed the Pastorale from 'The Thistle' for a week. 

This is a disc that should be in the collection of any lover of Scotland's music.

The Lion of Scotland

Soprano Catherine Bott, one of our greatest exponents of Baroque music, has never sounded more winning, handling with dextrous ease the vocal pyrotechnics these demanding works command.

Definitely one of the most important releases of Scottish music, and one immeasurably enriched by John Purser's enlightening notes.

Splendid. Steane's Choice    Gramophone

Utterly fascinating. Thoroughly rewarding music and music-making    Fanfare, USA

live reviews

The Early Music Show, BBC Radio 3 2004 

An entirely positive reaction, nay, an old-fashioned rave, for the Early Music Show. I normally find crossover, mixed-genre recitals completely off-putting: they usually combine the worst aspects of each genre rather than the best. Concerto Caledonia are a glorious exception to this. Their playing, their singing, their brilliantly eclectic choice of material, were all simply marvellous.

Bach's St John Passion is one of the great monuments of western civilisation, though to treat it as such is a mistake that too many performers have made. In stripping back his forces to the bare essentials – 11 singers and baroque group Concerto Caledonia – Mark Padmore's approach was intended to be revealing rather than reverential, something it ultimately achieved not through the shock-tactics of iconoclastic interpretation but through wonderful simplicity and surety of vision.

A performance using this size of forces was unlikely to favour old-fashioned slow and stately; however, more surprising was that it resisted the other extreme. This wasn't Bach whipped up into a frenzy of excitement, but a performance that in the absence of a conductor settled easily into a series of natural-feeling tempi.

And though it lacked the instant gratification of fast-and-furious performances, overall it was a more rewarding result, the slick choreography of one movement into the next without clunking changes of pace or unnecessary pauses, making the dramatic impetus of the crowd scenes and the intentional breaks all the more effective.

The soloists, led by Padmore's thoughtfully expressive Evangelist and Roderick William's noble Christus seemed to have more than customary freedom to make of their arias what they wished. Matthew Brook communicating the urgency of bass aria Eilt, ihr angefochtnen with a pace that took the accompanying chorus a little while to match, while the rich beauty of countertenor Iestyn Davies's voice was used to full effect in Es ist vollbracht.

With Richard Holloway's address reflecting on the nature of John's Gospel given in lieu of the traditional Lutheran sermon, this was a contemplative account of the Passion movingly concluded, as Bach himself would have done, with the sixteenth-century motet Ecce commodo by Jacob Handl, sung by both the choir and orchestra players.

The eminent, not to mention polemical, American musicologist Richard Taruskin has been known to refer to contemporary performances of early music as the new-old music played in old-new ways, in an allusion to the generally spurious claims of the performers to historical authenticity.

This is not a jibe that would bother Scottish period instrument group Concerto Caledonia, who make no pretence about attempting to recreate the historical intentions of a now-defunct age in their groundbreaking performances and who appeared in Greyfriars Kirk with their baroque set-up instruments amplified and with an electric piano sitting beside the harpsichord at the back of the stage.

The concert, entitled Spring Any Day Now after the whimsical little Fred Frith piece with which it opened, defied any kind of simple classification. It isn't often you find Burns songs sharing the programme with Frank Zappa, Finnish fiddle music, Astor Piazzolla and Thomas Morley. This was an eclectic mixture of music, one that would not doubt have had some purists running for cover, but it was certainly neither stuffy nor worthy, as so many forays into unknown musical territories almost inevitably end up being. Instead, it was great fun, at times resembling nothing so much as a good jamming session among friends, albeit one on period instruments.

Buccaneering Concerto Caledonia director David McGuinness, playing keyboards, was well matched by flamboyant American fiddler/baroque violinist David Greenberg and along with sisters Katherine and Alison McGillivray on viola and cello, they energetically threw themselves into a concert that crossed every kind of musical boundary. Replacing an indisposed Lisa Milne, soprano Mhairi Lawson joined the players for some deceptively simple and lovely arrangements of a variety of old songs, from laments by Burns to altogether happier pieces.

'If you’ve never heard an 18th Century band rocking, this is your chance.  Was this really a period instrument group? Director David McGuinness was almost jiving at his harpsichord ...' 

That a baroque ensemble should slip so comfortably into a contemporary music festival speaks volumes about Concerto Caledonia's approach to early music.