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SCOTTISH-CARIBBEAN CONNECTIONS ON THE SHORE OF THE MIND St John’s Church, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Jun; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 2 Aug
The links between Scotland and the Caribbean are centuries old but it is a history that has been largely hidden. Only in more recent years has the darker side come to light. As Glasgow prepares for the Commonwealth Games, welcoming the world to Scotland provides a timely trigger for Mr McFall’s Chamber to bring together several strands of thought that have been simmering for a while. A combination of hearing the inspirational black Jamaican activist, Geoff Palmer, and Michael Marra singing Burns’ ‘The Slave’s Lament’, led artistic director Robert McFall to come up with On the Shore of the Mind as a celebration of Scottish links with the Caribbean.
‘It is good to be upbeat about the close connection,’ he says, ‘and to bring history out of the shadows and celebrate. We’re taking Geoff Palmer’s lead here and not being shy about the brutality of what went on.’
Centrepiece to the programme is a new work by Bermuda-born
Gabriel Jackson (pictured), which sets poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay, who just happens to have been born in the Bahamas. ‘It’s slightly bluesy, melancholy and there is the feeling of the waves,’ says McFall of the new piece, which is scored for string quartet, double bass and soprano. ‘I had an idea that the whole programme could be about the theme of islands,’ he says, ‘and we also have Susan Hamilton singing Burns songs, including the love poem ‘Ae Fond Kiss’, which also reflects the sub-theme of departure as it was written for Nancy Maclehose as she departed from Scotland for Jamaica.’ With a handful of Caribbean poets – Derek Walcott, Dennis Scott and Lorna Goodison – in the mix too, it’s an evening of oppression weaving in and out of images of ‘waves, seaweed, salt, sails and far sea vista’. (Carol Main)
Edinburgh John Kitchen Barclay Church, 1a–1b Barclay Place, Tollcross, 229 6810. 7.30pm. £5. Organ recital. Recital as part of the church’s 150th anniversary celebrations. Saturday 21
Glasgow FREE Sandie Bishop: Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin St Simon’s Church, 33–37 Partick Bridge Street (foot of Byres Road), westendfestival.co.uk 3pm. Sonata No 3 in C major BWV 1005 and Partita No 3 in E major, BWV 1006. West End Festival. RSNO Chorus: Songs, Psalms and Spirituals St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, 339 6691. 8pm. £10 (£5). Choral works by Britten, Tippett and Villiers. West End Festival. FREE Requiem for Solstice Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, University Avenue, 330 5419. 9pm.
Choral music including Duruflé’s Requiem. West End Festival. Edinburgh New Edinburgh Orchestra St Serf’s Parish Church, 280 Ferry Road, newedinburghorchestra.org.uk 7.30pm. £10 (£7; children £1). Tim Paxton conducts works by Barber, Beethoven and Dvorák. St Andrew Camerata Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, 556 3515. 7.30pm. £12 (£8). Michael Haydn’s Missa Sancta Theresiae. Ane Midsimmar Nichts Godlie Dreame St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 473 2000. 7.30pm. £10 (£5). Sang Scule perform songs by Scotland’s first published woman writer, Elizabeth Melville, with readings by Germaine Greer and Meg Bateman.
Sunday 22 Glasgow Scottish International Piano Competition: Concerto Final
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 332 5057. 3pm. tbc. Student competition. Junior Conservatoire: Orchestra Concert Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £11 (£8.50). Concerto concert with student musicians.
Edinburgh ✽ Dunedin Consort: Cantatas for the Soul The Queen’s Hall,
87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 3pm. £10–£22 (£8). Vocal and instrumental music by JS and Johann Christoph Bach, including Brandenburg Concerto No 6, the Violin Concerto in A Minor featuring Cecilia Bernardini, and selected cantatas. With guest countertenor Iestyn Davies. St Giles’ at Six St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Tim Cais and Chris Harding play music by Beethoven for cello and piano.
✽ Mr McFall’s Chamber: On the Shore of the Mind St John’s
Episcopal Church, Princes Street, 229 7565. 7.30pm. £5–£14. Soprano Susan Hamilton joins the McFall’s strings for this special programme examining Scotland’s links with the Caribbean. Winds of Edinburgh Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, 556 3515. 7.30pm. £10 (£8; children free). Edinburgh-based wind ensemble plays music by Haydn, Mozart and Richard Strauss.
Monday 23
Edinburgh St Mary’s Music School The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.30pm. £10 (£7; school children & former pupils £3). Music students play works by Copland, Dvorák, Howells, Villa-Lobos and Tom David Wilson.
Wednesday 25 Glasgow FREE Arisa Rodriguez Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, University Avenue, 330 5419. 1.15pm. Piano recital. West End Festival. Royal Conservatoire Singers Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £9.50 (£7.50). Vocal music from RCS singers.
Thursday 26 Glasgow Acis and Galatea Cottiers Theatre, 93–95 Hyndland Street, 357 4000. 10–11.20pm. £12.50 (£5). John Butt conducts Handel’s chamber opera with Music of the Spheres. West End Festival.
Friday 27
Glasgow Acis and Galatea Cottiers Theatre, 93–95 Hyndland Street, 357 4000. 10–11.20pm. £12.50 (£5). See Thu 26. Dunblane Scottish Chamber Orchestra Dunblane Cathedral, The Cross, 01786 823388. 8pm. £tbc. Richard Egarr conducts Schubert’s Symphony No 2, Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D featuring Alison Mitchell, Haydn’s Symphony No 104 ‘London’ and Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from the Octet.
Saturday 28
Glasgow FREE Sandie Bishop: Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin St Simon’s Church, 33–37 Partick Bridge Street (foot of Byres Road), westendfestival.co.uk 3pm. Sonata No 1 in G minor, BWV 1001 and Partita No 2 in D minor, BWV 1004. West End Festival. FREE Choral Evensong All Saints Episcopal Church, Drymen Road, Bearsden, 942 0386. 4pm. West End Festival.
Classical | MUSIC
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✽ Dunedin Consort: Cantatas for the Soul
Joining the ensemble for the first time, countertenor extraordinaire Iestyn Davies (pictured) performs two of Bach’s cantatas in authentic vein, a sound that Bach himself adored. On the instrumental front, his second cousin Johann Christoph shows why he was such an inspiration to his younger relative. The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Jun.
✽ On The Shore of the Mind A new work by
composer Gabriel Jackson, who was born in Bermuda, setting island poems by Scottish poet and sculptor Ian Hamilton Finlay and Caribbean poets Derek Walcott, Dennis Scott and Lorna Goodison to music. See interview, left. St John’s Church, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Jun
✽ Edinburgh Quartet At last the sublimely beautiful
music of Austrian composer Hans Gal is coming to the fore. One of the founders of the Edinburgh International Festival and composition professor at Edinburgh University, Gal is a neglected voice whose Clarinet Quintet and Concertino for Flute and String Quartet are rightly placed at the heart of the Edinburgh Quartet’s celebration of his work. The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 15 Jun.
Edinburgh The Edinburgh Singers Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, 556 3515. 7pm. £10 (£8; under 12s free). Classics by Palestrina, Mozart and Elgar. Justin Nash (piano), John Gormley directing.
Sunday 29
Glasgow Glasgow Philharmonia Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 07757 951405. 7–9pm. £10 (£8; students £8). Ross Gunning conducts Bernstein’s ’Candide’ Overture, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No 1 with soloist Daniel Rainey and Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony. Edinburgh FREE Tinderbox Orchestra The Jazz Bar, 1 Chambers Street, 220 4298. 2pm. The experimental youth orchestra plays original arrangements and compositions. Open rehearsal.
12 Jun–10 Jul 2014 THE LIST 89