Veteran to bow out on a high note

IT WAS the end of an era in the nation's music history yesterday when the veteran leader of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra announced he was stepping down.

Violinist Edwin Paling has been with the RSNO for 34 years. He became the orchestra's principal first violin, and leader, in 1976, aged just 26.

The influential position ranks second only to conductor. His wife, Rosalin Lazaroff, is the orchestra's principal second violin.

Mr Paling was hired by Sir Alexander Gibson, the conductor and legendary figure in 20th-century Scottish classical music, who went on to found Scottish Opera.

He is leaving in a different era of ris- ing young conductors at the RSNO, such as the orchestra's French music director Stphane Denve and the Scottish conductor Garry Walker.

As orchestra leader and frequent soloist, Mr Paling has appeared on over 100 RSNO recordings and 4,000 live performances.

He led the orchestra on its debut appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1975, performed in front of the Queen at the opening of the Glasgow Royal Con-cert Hall in 1990, and again at the open-ing ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004.

Mr Paling called the job a "go-between" between orchestra and conductor, covering artistic decisions, appointments, and trouble-shooting. The RSNO works far harder than 30 years ago, he said, with at least two performances a week.

Mr Paling, who also trains the orchestra at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, is leaving to become associate professor of strings at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

He and the Australian-born Ms Lazaroff married in the city three years ago, and her two sisters play with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

He said: "It has been a privilege to perform with this great orchestra for so many years."

Mr Paling began his career with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He plays a Vincenzo Panormo violin, made in London in 1790. His final concerts with the RSNO are in April.

Mr Denve said: "I will miss Edwin tremendously. It has been a great pleasure these last two years to benefit from his huge talent, his vast experience, not to forget his fantastic sense of humour."