The main event here was the premiere of a new work written by Sally Beamish for the combined forces of fiddler Chris Stout, harpist Catriona McKay and the strings of the Scottish Ensemble.
The three-movement Seavaigers (Seafarers) takes inspiration from the stretch of water between Stout's native Shetlands and McKay's hometown of Dundee; as Stout put it, "sometimes stormy, sometimes calm".
The piece is so utterly tailor-made it could never be played by anyone else. Beamish takes up the trademark Stout/McKay sound world – fierce muscularity, spare and sweet lyricism – and she leaves plenty of room for improvisation, too. The Scottish Ensemble, luxury backing band if ever there was one, mostly adds textural support and the odd passage of doubling on unison violins. It's lovely stuff and superbly delivered, but Beamish only gently pushes the scope at her end – maybe she was reluctant to impose "classical" confines on two soloists who are both masterful composers in their own right.
The rest of the set was music from the duo's 2010 album White Nights, sounding gorgeously lived-in and still totally fresh. Added string backing traded the album's intimacy for a more expansive if heavier sound; even so, and despite too much amplified reverb on the clarsach and fiddle, the musical chemistry centre-stage was electrifying.
Sharing the bill was Swedish trio Väsen led by Olov Johansson's nyckel-harpa, whose blithe traditional marches, polskas and waltzes charge through medieval inflections and rhythms that pull you in and throw you brilliantly off-kilter. They've been playing together for nigh-on 30 years and it shows; this is kinetic synchronicity of the most intuitive degree.
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