The Scottish Ensemble with guitarist Sean Shibe perform a thoughtful programme of ancient and modern Christmas-themed music in a candlelit St John’s Kirk.
Prelude – Skydiving from a Dream from Scottish Ensemble and Andersson Dance: mesmeric choreographed Bach and Lutosławski with a blistering performance of Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue played from memory and on the move. Thrilling, daring and exciting.
Mezzo soprano Karen Cargill and the Scottish Ensemble guest-led by Matthew Truscott in a programme of music from Purcell to Stravinsky all inspired by tales from Ancient Greece.
What is it about Arvo Pärt’s ‘Angel Music’ that appeals to the dying? Vanishing Point’s theatre and Scottish Ensemble’s playing combine to produce a thoughtful and poignant performance.
The complex world of Górecki, Bacewicz and Cytż is contrasted with Dvořák and Chopin as The Scottish Ensemble embarked upon an Eastern European journey with guest director Bartosz Woroch.
Alina Ibragimova with the Scottish Ensemble perform exuberant early teenage Mendelssohn, deeply spiritual Pärt and Vasks, politically lethal Hartmann and utterly thrilling Bach.
Music from Vaughan Williams is contrasted with two pieces from Dobrinka Tabakova in The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concert, Ascent. Senior NYOS strings swell the ranks to produce a reflective evening of richness and warmth.
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is used a reference in Anna Meredith’s Anno, an immersive performance by the Scottish Ensemble with surround visuals by illustrator Eleanor Meredith.
Debussy, Ravel and Fauré: turn of the century Paris. We might think of hazy perfumed music, but the richness of the Scottish Ensemble brought out a bold, vibrant and dynamic side to the French dreams.
The Scottish Ensemble on lively form is joined by exciting Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero to explore the links and influences of Bach and Mozart on modern South American composers.
In a big challenge, the Scottish Ensemble players were included in the choreography in a cross-arts collaboration with Andersson Dance from Sweden in an innovative performance of the Goldberg Variations.
As the December nights darken and the winter's first snowflakes fall from the sky, the Scottish Ensemble's candlelight concerts provice a welcome space for reflection at this busy time of year.
Scottish Ensemble, Catriona McKay and Chris Stout in a programme mixing the classical and the Celtic; the composed and the improvised; the individually crafted and the collaboratively collaged.
Love and War in Bohemia, with rising star mezzo Sophie Harmsen, an engaging evening of light and darkness, and a study of composer pupils with famous masters.
The Scottish Ensemble playfully challenged the audience to decide game-show style, which country’s string music won the night: Germany or Britain? Indeed, the concert was a game of two halves with Britain being represented by William Walton and Martin Suckling in the first and Germany by Leopold Hurt and Brahms in the second.
Dundee is on the final shortlist for the UK City of Culture 2017, and the final bid was given a rousing send-off by a large crowd in Tay Square outside the Caird Hall on 30 September.
The Scottish Ensemble’s tagline, “re-defining the string orchestra” could, in this particular programme, have justified the additional claim “re-defining the quartet”. The only work in this imaginatively conceived, four-item programme not written for quartet (or double quartet) was the opening Musical Postcard no. 4 by the young British composer Martin Suckling.
A very striking wild-eyed hirsute man has been staring out at us across Scotland on posters for this concert tour, showing that the Scottish Ensemble has adapted well to the modern world of promotion, using titles, straplines and imagination. On the face of things, the choice of eight seemingly very disconnected pieces in the programme, from 1700 to the present day, was disconcerting.
Every December, the Scottish Ensemble takes a candlelit concert around Scotland. The music is not usually Christmassy, yet often suits the more contemplative season of Advent and comes as a complementary alternative to the many festive musical performances on offer and a relief from carols on loop in the shops.
The Scottish Ensemble has been resident in Dundee for four days, really getting under the skin of the city. Amongst a whole raft of activities, including pop-up concerts, performing a film score live at a screening at Dundee Contemporary Arts, the Ensemble has been working with string players from Dundee Schools Orchestra and Dundee Symphony Orchestra.
There is something delightfully non-prescriptive about the word “ensemble”, admitting of many combinations of performers and types of music. It was this notion of flexibility that came to the fore in Friday night’s concert in the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.
One of today’s foremost violists, Lawrence Power joined a Scottish Ensemble augmented by two horns and two oboes for this typically boldly-programmed concert. The centrepiece was a new work by Luke Bedford, first composer-in-residence at the Wigmore Hall, written for the same musical forces as Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, which ended the evening.
Violist Lawrence Power, appropriately enough, produces a powerful, beautiful sound. Many public speakers would envy his musical charisma; when he begins a phrase you simply have to hear how it ends. His appearance as guest of the Scottish Ensemble saw him as joint soloist in two works and soloist proper in another.
Built on the site of a Franciscan friary which was dissolved in 1559, Greyfriars Kirk is one of the treasures of Edinburgh's 'Old Town'. A rich tradition of music-making has grown there, due to its striking interior and fantastic acoustic.
The Scottish Ensemble launched their 2011/12 season with a programme of Mendelssohn and Stravinsky. On the face of it the pairing looked rather unlikely, but as Artistic Director Jonathan Morton explained to us, both composers were full of energy and invention, and each searching out new musical direction in their own times.
In the week when the world of Physics was turned upside-down by neutrinos being found to travel faster than the speed of light, my physics world encountered another first – a carpeted church with a fantastic acoustic! St Michael’s Kirk, Inveresk – situated at the highest point of Musselburgh, East Lothian - played host to a sold-out concert featuring The Scottish Ensemble and their special g
Jonathan Morton handed over the reins to guest director Anthony Marwood for the final set of concerts in the 2010/11 series from the Scottish Ensemble. Marwood was also the soloist for the UK premiere of Schuman's Cello Concerto arranged for violin by Orlando Jopling. It was interesting to see how differently the group responded to a different leader.
Outside St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth it was minus 8 deg C, and pavements round about were extremely difficult to use due to thick uneven layers of ice.
Scottish Ensemble’s annual Candlelit Concerts have become a favourite festive treat across Scotland, performing “Christmas with a Twist”: no tired Nutcracker or Swan Lake here! This year’s Czech celebration was no different, offering a little-played Nocturne in B major by Dvořák, Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata and Dvořák’s famous Serenade for Strings, with a surprise addition of Czech
