Classical review: Blas - Borraig, Beauly

MACCRIMMON has long been a name to conjure with in Gaelic music, being that of the hereditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod of Skye.

Picture: submitted

Blas: Borraig

Phipps Hall, Beauly

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Calum MacCrimmon, best known as a member of top young folk band Breabach, and the recipient of this year’s Blas festival commission, is directly of this illustrious lineage, and did his forefathers proud with a suite of instrumental and vocal compositions inspired by their ancestral lands in Skye – after which the piece is titled – and by more recent family history, including a fair amount of transatlantic emigration.

Further extending the island connections were Skye natives Angus Nicolson, joining MacCrimmon on pipes and whistles, and Gaelic singer Darren MacLean, while completing a top-quality cast, and a beautifully arrayed sonic palette, were Eilidh Shaw (fiddle), Mischa MacPherson (clarsach/vocals), Ewan MacPherson (guitar/mandolin) and James Lindsay (double bass). The tunes ranged from brilliant hybrids reflecting MacCrimmon’s and his antecedents’ myriad musical journeyings, to a magnificent solo rendition of a piobaireachd written by his father, for his own father, who served in the First World War. Among these were some superb new Gaelic songs, co-written with MacLean and often featuring the whole ensemble on vibrant backing vocals, putting a fresh spin on traditional elements like waulking-song rhythms. Together with MacCrimmon’s background stories about the material, this was an eloquent, testament to the relationships between family, place and music.