Partnership between violin and fiddle feels the strain

Never the twain will meet. Such an expression loses substance when the Scottish Ensemble are involved.

A partnership between violin and fiddle in live performance is a rare occurrence but the SE’s concert in the Caird Hall, Dundee, provided just that.

Jonathan Morton’s classical violin paired with Chris Stout’s trad fiddle.

However, I thought Morton and the ensemble were caught between two stools, balancing their normal repertoire with music that jumps to another extreme. The JS Bach music didn’t have the spontaneous magic or excitement that was generated by other items of the programme. Sally Beamish’s Seavaigers, for instance.

The third Brandenburg and the E major violin concerto were played to clinical perfection, but just didn’t have that “wow” factor I normally associate with Scottish Ensemble and Bach.

Bartok’s Divertimento for Strings won the straight classical competition by a mile. The dark, smouldering intensity of the middle movement was balanced by outer movements of vivacity, lightness and sparkling colour. Certainly one of the evening’s highlights.

The amalgamation of Ensemble strings, Stout and harpist Catriona McKay in the Beamish work was a winner, however. Beamish paints vivid pictures, creates vivid emotions and provides a musical palette of a variety of colours.

The concert ended with Dealer in Hope, written by Stout in 2015 to recognise Morton’s 10th anniversary as SE artistic director.

Originally just a single melody, arms and legs were added by Stout and McKay to an end that improvisation was the key factor.

What resulted was a jam session where freedom of thought was allied to energetic and vibrant music.