Celtic Connections review: Scottish Ensemble with Edgar Meyer, Barony Hall, Glasgow

The European premiere of Edgar Meyer’s Concertina for Strings and Double Bass lived up to its tour-de-force billing, writes Jim Gilchrist

Scottish Ensemble with Edgar Meyer, Mischa MacPherson & Donald Grant, and Ailie Robertson, Barony Hall, Glasgow ****

An evening of diverse, and diverting, elements opened with violinist and Scottish Ensemble leader Jonathan Morton, cellist Alison Lawrance and American double-bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer – just three figures amid the gothic sandstone chiaroscuro of the Barony Hall – sounding a stately Bach gamba sonata. It ended with the ensemble in full fling with a Gaelic folk band.

In between, the star event was, surely, the European premiere of Edgar Meyer’s Concertina for Strings and Double Bass. This lived up to its tour-de-force billing as Meyer demonstrated his formidable technique as well as lyricism, as in the vivacious opening melody, his resonant bass escorted handsomely by the full ensemble or, in the middle section, murmuring against stealthy pizzicato and growls from the strings, before concluding with a dramatic race against bickering strings.

Edgar Meyer

The ensemble had already given a fine account of James MacMillan’s brief but haunting Memento, its keening of ebbing and flowing strings reflecting Gaelic musical influences.

Then there was harpist-composer Ailie Robertson’s Archetypes, commissioned by the ensemble and evoking the universal characters of folk tales. Its five vignettes ranged from the creepy harmonics and discords of The Villain to the cheerfully catchy Everyman. Robertson herself joined the ensemble on clarsach for her beautifully wistful air, Haar.

Gaeldom returned in the form of fiddle-song duo Donald Grant and Mischa Macpherson, accompanied by guitarist Innes White, Irish piper and whistle player Jarlath Henderson and the discreet drumming of James Mackintosh. Sensitive ensemble settings rarely threatened to obscure Macpherson’s voice, and there were some boisterous accompaniments for upbeat sets. A standout was Macpherson’s delivery of the lament Bha Mo Leannan Ann – poised cadences of grief against a dark drone from the strings, with lyrical fiddle interjections from Grant.