CELTIC CONNECTIONS
Paul Buchanan, Aoife O'donovan, Lau & Maeve Gilchrist
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall JJJJ
On one level it was a regular variety gig: a roll-out of distinctive spotlight acts from husky Blue Nile vocal frontman Paul Buchanan, boundary-hopping traditional combo Lau, and zingy Scots harp virtuoso Maeve Gilchrist, to epic multi-styled American singer Aoife O’donovan. On another, with heightened moments of cross-fertilisation and the binding omnipresence of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Eric Jacobsen’s baton, the outcome exceeded the sum of its parts.
The SCO’S scene-setter, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, proved a bit of a damp squib but it was a momentary hiatus. Along came Gilchrist with her own composition, The Harpweaver, a feast of melancholic optimism propelled by her febrile dexterity, flashes of wild glissandi and, in Jon Hargreaves’/pippa Murphy’s orchestral arrangement, poignant moments of impressionistic reflection.
Lau took equal advantage of the orchestral resource to probe new potential in Riad, intensified laconic dissonances and spidery string atmospherics amplifying its fundamental organic allure. Inge Thompson and O’donovan added vocal fill to Kris Drever’s soft-grained lilt in the ballad Cruel Brother, which evaporated magically.
Buchanan’s fans - audibly out in force - suddenly came alive for a typically lugubrious set, Donald Shaw adding sullen piano support to Buchanan’s trademark autumnal nostalgia in Mid Air, Let’s Go Out Tonight, and an especially plaintive Snow.
But it was O’donovan’s America, Come - marking the ongoing struggle of Women’s Suffrage in the US - that made the biggest statement, symphonic in scope, heightened by the cumulative heart-warming hopefulness expressed through the young voices of Glasgow CREATE Chamber Choir.
To everyone’s delight, the entire company came together for Blue Nile’s 1990s Gospel anthem Happiness, not once but twice.