EIF music reviews: The Golden Age of Hollywood | Simon Thoumire
An orchestral tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age was a joy for the musicians and the audience, while a retrospective for a pioneer in traditional music offered some dramatic re-arrangements, write our critics in their latest dispatch from the Edinburgh International Festival
The Golden Age of Hollywood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Usher Hall
Historically informed performance has come a long way since the pioneering efforts of David Munrow and Gustav Leonhardt in the 1960s and 70s. Gateshead-born conductor John Wilson has made no secret of his deep love for the Golden Age of Hollywood film scores, and with his own Sinfonia of London he delivered a kaleidoscopically coloured, lavishly conceived performance that paid reverential homage to the MGM composers, arrangers and orchestras of the 1940s and 50s, and did so with what was clearly an intense affection and a profound understanding for the intricacies and authentic sounds of this music. And it was, it has to be said, a joy to see orchestral musicians so evidently passionate about what they’re playing, and so eager to convey that love so directly to listeners.
Enjoying The Scotsman's coverage of the Edinburgh festivals? For just £2 a month you can get unlimited access to scotsman.com plus 2-for-1 Fringe tickets. For details visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions
Numbers ranged from the iconic to the little-known. Louise Dearman was golden-toned in a surprisingly fulsome arrangement of Over the Rainbow, and she was joined by Matthew Ford in a wonderfully swaggering A Couple of Swells that excellently foregrounded the song’s knowing humour. A rip-roaring I Got Rhythm brought the first half to a gloriously raucous close, and Dearman roared and purred her way through the young André Previn’s Thanks a Lot, but No Thanks after the interval.
But it was Wilson’s impeccable performing group that really stole the show, combining big band and symphony orchestra, and joyfully alive to this music’s high-flying emotions and its switchback mood swings too. Their opening MGM Jubilee Overture brought together a host of famous show tunes and showcased, too, the talents of individuals and sections – Wilson brought brass, woodwind, even strings to their feet to spotlight their solos. Their closer – a truncated version of Gershwin’s ballet music for An American in Paris – was bold and brightly coloured, but the full-length score would have been more than welcome. It was an evening of deep joy and authentic Hollywood sparkle, delivered with passion and compelling musical insights. David Kettle
Simon Thoumire: Scots Fiddle & Clarsach ★ ★ ★ ★
The Hub
As MC David Francis explained, as well as being a concertina virtuoso and tireless champion of traditional music, raising its profile significantly in recent decades through Hands Up for Trad and much else, Simon Thoumire somehow finds time to compose a wealth of new music and re-arrange – dramatically – traditional material.
This retrospective concert featured a dozen leading traditional players, including an eightsome of fiddles. With pianist Dave Milligan conducting and setting the tone, the opening Deil Amang the Tailors set (from the Strathspey and Surreal Orchestra) gleefully deconstructed conventional reels through melodic and discordant deliberations.
The seasoned duo of fiddler Patsy Reid and cellist Alice Allen performed a similarly re-imagined Earl of Louden’s Strathspey, Reid also duetting with Jack Smedley in Thoumire’s First Monday of the Season, which became exhilarating as the two fiddles pulsed and responded briskly to each other.
In contrast, singer Mairi MacMillan precented a Gaelic psalm – a few audience voices responding, surprisingly perhaps, though echoing the Gaelic services once held in what is now the Hub. A centrepiece was Thoumire’s concerto for clarsach and string quartet, Itealaich an Dòchais (“Flight of Hope”), with harpist Ciorstaidh Beaton playing over waves of quartet strings and the music – laced with recorded calls of the turnstone and other shore birds – reflecting both cultural and environmental heritage.
To close, the entire ensemble put the Bluebell Polka through hoops, including a piano boogie burst from Milligan. Jimmy Shand might have thrown a fit, but the audience loved it. Jim Gilchrist
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.