Music

Tradfest: Bagpipes Gu Leor

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

Rob Adams

four stars

IT WAS an event that lived up to its name. There were indeed bagpipes, and bagpipe music, galore and if it turned into quite a marathon, it was worth getting a numb bum just to marvel at the contrasting virtuosity of solo Highland piping master Roddy MacLeod and triple-chanter adventurer Calum Armstrong and to enjoy Brighde Chaimbeul’s gorgeous, flowing musicality on smallpipes.

As emcee Gary West and programmer Hamish Moore pointed out, this was as much about the pipes as an instrument for dancing to as listening to and the opening set by his son, Finn and Cape Bretoner Angus MacKenzie illustrated this with tightly together rhythmical urgency and vigorous stepdancing from Finn to Mackenzie and guitarist Ewan MacPherson’s accompaniment.

Dance tunes and a lovely Gaelic song air showcased Brighde Chaimbeul’s sweet intonation and expressive phrasing before Calum Armstrong introduced the harmonic and chromatic possibilities of smallpipes with multiple chanters in tandem with cellist George Pasca. Theirs was an extraordinary display, with Pasca strumming creatively sympathetic chords and matching Armstrong’s dizzying melodies with both bowed and pizzicato lines on waltzes, reels and a piece that managed to evoke French courtly soirees, electric guitar shredding and the James Bond theme.

More traditional but just as engrossing were Allan MacDonald and Seonaidh MacIntyre’s smallpipes duets and Gaelic keening as they first took it in turns to sing a haunting foretelling and then brought voices and pipes together in, to all intents and purposes, a high art quartet. Roddy MacLeod’s brilliantly fluent marches and swinging strathspeys then gave way to a finale that completed the circle with Finn Moore’s hard shoe stepdance.