Classical music writer Michael Tumelty shares his thoughts on the Scottish Ensemble residency programme in the second of a two-part commentary on the 2015-16 season in The Herald. Written by Michael Tumelty Published on Saturday 20 June 2015 Read on The Herald website The Scottish Ensemble, a 12-strong string orchestra that very much has its own niche… Read more »
Michael Tumelty, one of The Herald’s classical music writers, has written a wonderful outline, and a glowing endorsement, of what to expect from our recently-launched season. It’s great to see journalists and critics such as Michael not only intuitively understanding what we’re trying to do but also celebrating it. So thank you, Michael – and Ken Walton in The… Read more »
Published on Monday 23 February Written by David Smythe The Scottish Ensemble has a track record of picking really interesting artists to work with and certainly the unusual combination of classical saxophone with the Ensemble promised much more than curiosity value. Amy Dickson is a London based Australian saxophonist, twice Grammy-nominated, and a breakthrough artist… Read more »
Written by Michael Tumelty Published on Thursday 26 February 2015 ***** A few weeks ago, while listening to the Scottish Ensemble’s electrifying new recording of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade For Strings, there was a wee man in my head telling me that this was how they were going to do the pieces in… Read more »
Written by John Worrack Published on Tuesday 30 January 2015 Coupling Tchaikovsky’s Serenade with Shostakovich’s Second Quartet seems eccentric even for an ensemble that, so the record blurb tells us, ‘habitually blends music from different ages, offering new perspectives and making unexpected connections’. Actually, it works well and is cleverly done. The performance of the… Read more »
Written by Richard Morrison Published on Saturday 14 February 2015 The main interest here is Jonathan Morton’s new string-orchestra arrangement of Shostakovich’s Second String Quartet, with Morton himself leading the excellent Scottish Ensemble and playing the haunting, Jewish-inflected violin solo in the slow movement. This wartime music (1944) has an epic, tragic and at times… Read more »
Written by Geoffrey Norris Published on Saturday 21 February 2015 Tchaikovsky’s oft-recorded Serenade for Strings is given fresh impetus here by the Scottish Ensemble, rich in sonority, precise in articulation, mellifluous in the flow of string textures and dynamic shading. The phrasing of the waltz is appealingly and artlessly pliable, the melodic lines of the… Read more »
Written by Fiona Maddocks Published on Sunday 22 February 2015 Built around a dozen string players, the Scottish Ensemble is a byword for vigorous music-making, combining the prowess of solo playing with the discipline of small-scale ensemble. Here they find connections and departure points in one Russian and one Soviet work. Their performance of Tchaikovsky’s smiling… Read more »
Written by Michael Tumelty Published on Sunday 15 February 2015 HERE’S an imperative for CD collectors and fans of the Scottish Ensemble. Released tomorrow is the orchestra’s first recording on Linn Records in a decade. It is a stonker, with a characteristically big-boned, confident and (under the consummately authoritative leadership of Jonathan Morton) compelling performance… Read more »
We are excited to reveal the Scottish Ensemble 15-16 season of events. From August 2015 to May 2016, we’ve planned what we hope will be an intriguing, exciting, entertaining and enlightening journey through the string repertoire. One of the absolute don’t-miss events has to be our second large-scale, cross-artform collaboration, Goldberg Variations. SE musicians will be… Read more »