CD REVIEW
– Hail
Caledonia
Scotland in Music
City of Glasgow Philharmonic
Orchestra
IAN SUTHERLAND conductor
ARIADNE 5014
[79:32]
'
SOMM welcomes the
new year with another dip into
the Iain Sutherland sporran of
spirited sounds – this time
from his Scottish homeland with a
fresh remastering by the
admirable Paul Arden-Taylor of
live radio transmissions taken
from 'Pops at the Philharmonic'
concerts at Glasgow Royal Concert
Hall in 1995-96.
The generously
timed 20 tracks include The
Black Bear Salute played by
City of Glasgow Pipe Band, Robert
Docker's orchestration of Abbey
Craig (Scots Wha Hae) and
his own Faery Dance Reel,
Ernest Tomlinson's Cumberland
Square (My love she's but a
lassie yet/Cock o' the North),
Arthur Blake's Take the High
Road Theme, Hamish
McCunn’s Sutherland's
Law Theme (Land of the
Mountain and the Flood),
Alexander McKenzie's Benedictus,
Malcolm Arnold's Four
Scottish Dances, Roy
Williamson's Flower of
Scotland with the CoGPB and
City of Glasgow Chorus, the
traditional Amazing Grace
in a Sutherland arrangement
featuring piper David
Wotherspoon, and Ian Whyte's Devil's
Finale/Reel o' Tulloch with
piper Iain McDonald.
Three Scottish
Castles (Stirling: Gateway to the
Highlands, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye
and Edinburgh, Princes Street) is
by Iain himself. Other pieces
come from Eric Coates, Felix
Mendelssohn, and Granville
Bantock. It is a pity that Robert
Farnon's From the Highlands,
which is on the original 'Great
Scottish Classics' album, has
been replaced.
Iain was invited
to form the City of Glasgow
Philharmonic Orchestra in 1988,
in preparation for Glasgow City
of Culture 1990, and conducted
them for seven years.
The album is enhanced –
thoughts of Covid almost caused
me to write 'boosted' – by
some top-notch booklet notes from
Robert Matthew-Walker; and
Kilchurn Castle, Loch Awe
provides an impressive cover
photograph.
Altogether, then,
one more very collectable album
from this label, with the
1936-vintage Maestro in customary
fine form as conductor, arranger
and composer.
© Peter
Burt 2022
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