WITH the late cancellation of lutenist Rob MacKillop, scheduled to appear on Saturday in the monthly contemporary music concert given by husband and wife duo, violinist Hector Scott and clarinettist Shinobu Miki, not only the general concert plan, but the entire scheduled programme, was thrown into chaos - lute players are so thin on the ground that if one calls off, a complete revamp is required.
To the rescue came Julia Lynch, RSAMD pianist and accompanist extraordinaire (playing with expertise and panache on a remarkably effective Roland RD150 electronic instrument). The ever-enterprising Scott put a new programme in place for the concert in the air gallery of the Gallery of Modern Art, where the musicians were surrounded by the terrific sculptures of David Mach, which lose none of their kinetic menace by being held in a frozen moment - you really do expect the fanged, driller-killer teddy bear to erupt into action.
Last minute it may have been in its assembly, but Scott's programme was a fascinating and cogent array of
lesser-known Scottish musical miniatures. Rory Boyle's Lament and Cecil Coles's Reverie, both for violin and piano, could not have been more different - the one a deeply-felt, intense elegy, aching with reflective anguish, the other a richly melodic ballad. Yet each was the obverse of the other, as much of a complement as tragedy and comedy.
Similarly balanced were Margaret McAllister's abstract Monologue for solo clarinet and Kenneth Dempster's descriptive Wise Men or Simpletons - the latter covering an imaginatively-charted emotional landscape. Framing these, Edward McGuire's brilliant Traditional Chinese Dances - a dazzling concert triptych that ends with an exuberant oriental reel - and Hans Gal's wiry Trio provided good, strong launch and landing pads in a
satisfying concert.
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