Music review: A National Treasure III

Published on Monday 28 September 2009 19:05

A NATIONAL TREASURE III PERTH CONCERT HALL

THE third annual concert celebrating the music of groundbreaking Perthshire piper Gordon Duncan, who died in 2005, drew a near-capacity crowd to hear some 50 performers, variously reflecting the adventurous spirit and inspirational legacy of the man himself. A key aim of the event is actively to extend that legacy by commissioning new music, this time comprising four short pieces by fiddler/guitarist Innes Watson, flautist Kevin O'Neill, bassist Duncan Lyall and fiddler Adam Sutherland. All the composers also happen to be members of the Treacherous Orchestra, the young supergroup who served as house band for the night.

Opening with some quirkily comic spoken-word samples, Watson's cleverly layered mesh of folk, jazz and minimalist elements, resolving into march tempo before throwing touches of country and reggae into the mix, straight away set the bar appropriately high. O'Neill's wistful slow air, followed by a funkily syncopated reel, was more traditional in approach, but richly melodious and smoothly assured, while Lyall contributed a deliciously sultry, Latin-tinged waltz, before the brilliantly stormy, gypsy-esque drama and thumping grooves of Sutherland's piece.

As this suggests, it certainly wasn't an evening narrowly dominated by the pipes, although that instrument was exceptionally well served by a mighty set from the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band – Duncan's own home team – and the quicksilver sound of Edelmiro Fernndez on the Galician gaita. An exquisitely sparkling duet between the latter and mandolin player Ian MacLeod ranked among many other highlights, as did the contrasting but equally potent singing of Kris Drever and Karen Matheson.