RSNO/John McLeod/Dame Evelyn Glennie
Out of the Silence
Delphian
THIS is without doubt a major release in terms of contemporary Scottish orchestral music, yet there is a sense of our national orchestra playing catch-up. It is the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that will premiere McLeod’s new viola concerto, Nordic Fire, in October, and the BBC SSO that most recently featured his The Gokstad Ship in concert. The SCO also commissioned the title work here, which is conducted by RSNO’s recently-departed Assistant Conductor Holly Mathieson, and the closing Hebridean Dances, like the rest of the disc under the baton of the composer.
Nonetheless, these are all premiere recordings, immaculately recorded in the orchestra’s new Glasgow home and, the playful Dances perhaps apart, all major works. Central to the release is the Percussion Concerto premiered by Evelyn Glennie with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland thirty years ago. It is full of vigour, as much in the orchestral writing with some fine cameos for the principals, as in the virtuoso solo part. A work of dramatic contrasts, the central contemplative Nightscape (Callanish) is framed by two boisterous Scherzos, where the full panoply of tuned percussion is deployed.
The other two works are no less theatrical, not least in their overt referencing of the composers that inspired them: Carl Nielsen and Dmitri Shostakovich. With an exquisitely poised opening, Out of the Silence concludes with beautifully captured pizzicato strings and flutes, while The Shostakovich Connection – McLeod’s first orchestral work – is an inventive homage to the Fifth Symphony with a role for tenor sax.
Keith Bruce
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.
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.
That is invaluable.
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 here