Music
Duncan Chisholm: The Gathering, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Rob Adams
FIVE STARS
In Kin, his Herald Angel-winning Blas festival commission from 2007, Duncan Chisholm used location shots and film to illustrate the land that inspired his music. Not to denigrate the quality of that photography but Chisholm didn't need any such visual aids in this presentation by his dream band.
The Inverness-based fiddler has the ability, using subtle bow strokes in a similar way to an artist's brush strokes, to put a strong image, a real sense of place in the listener's mind. When he plays Craskie, from the second album in his Strathglass trilogy, Canaich, his soul-deep feeling for this spot that's part of his family's history is such that you're taken from concert hall seat to the great outdoors - and with luck you might manage this without a Kleenex.
What made these transportations so special was that Chisholm's beautiful playing - singing almost - of slow airs and that wonderful sense of joy he imparts in dance tunes, and even in the ones in compound time that come with advice not to try dancing, was couched in such empathetic arrangements. Whistle, uilleann pipes, guitar, cello, violins and piano all flew just slightly under the radar, supporting, colluding on melodies in the case of the superb Jarlath Henderson on whistle and pipes, colouring the background, bolstering the rhythm but always making Chisholm's fiddle the primary focus.
If the music generally did all the talking necessary, Chisholm also has a nice line in character-sharing and his graphic tale of Johnny Cunningham's explanation for remaining in exile was as mirthful as his rendering of his late hero's hymn-like Night in That Land was heart-stoppingly moving.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article