Latest news with #BBCScottishSymphonyOrchestra
Press and Journal
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Press and Journal
Capercaillie star on drinking beer in Fort William caravan with Liam Neeson
Drinking beer in an old caravan in Fort William with film star Liam Neeson remains a treasured memory for Capercaillie accordionist Donald Shaw It was also a pivotal moment in the Celtic music trailblazer's career trajectory that propelled the band from the Highlands to a world-wide force. Not only did Capercaillie provide the music for Rob Roy, they also performed in the 1995 smash hit Hollywood movie alongside leading star Neeson. In between scenes they passed the time swigging beer – until the producer put a stop to the fun for fear the Hollywood star would get too drunk. Donald explained: 'Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange were both lovely to work with. 'We hung out with Liam up the Glen in an old caravan in Fort William when they were shooting those scenes. 'He used to come in and have a couple of beers with us until the producer came in and told us off and to stop trying to get the lead actor drunk in case he forgot his lines. So he wasn't allowed into our caravan after that.' Rob Roy also starred John Hurt, Tim Roth and Brian Cox as the villainous factor Killearn. Music for the soundtrack to the movie was provided by Capercaillie. Donald said: 'At that time it was a really big deal Hollywood coming to Scotland. 'There was probably next to no obvious blockbuster movie that had Scottish traditional music in it. 'It was a breakthrough for us and opened up a bigger audience in America. 'It meant that we could think differently how we could produce music because Gaelic music is quite cinematic in itself.' Capercaillie are set to celebrate their 40th anniversary with their first major Scottish shows for more than a decade. From their roots in the Highlands of Scotland the band have toured more than 30 countries. Donald said: 'For the last decade we have been doing what you might call hit and run festivals around Europe. 'We have also played in the United States and Australia but this is the first major venues we have done as a tour in Scotland for a while. 'Over the years we did a huge amount of touring around the world. 'Life catches up with you as we were bringing up kids and doing other projects so we reduced the touring. 'During that time over the last few years we have always remained great friends so it's always a joy to come back together.' The band originally formed in the early eighties by high school friends Donald and Marc Duff (bodhran & whistles), both from Taynuilt. They soon added further musicians and Gaelic singer Karen Matheson to the line-up and released debut Cascade in 1984. Four decades on from that debut the band released ReLoved last year, featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Donald said: 'ReLoved was taken from a lot of old material and then reorchestrated. 'It was a great feeling to be on stage such a talented orchestra (Scottish Symphony Orchestra). 'It makes the songs big, bold and almost cinematic. 'It's just a shame we can't stick all those guys in a van and take them on tour. 'The musical landscape is changing quite a bit. 'It would have probably have been quite unusual even 20 or 30 years ago for traditional musicians to be working alongside other styles such as orchestral music, jazz or electronica. 'But that is very common now. 'It is a very mixed palette of colours that everyone is using for producing music. 'I'm delighted traditional music is part of that palette.' Since his formative years rich musical palette is something Donald has embraced, having worked with musicians across multiple genres. He has collaborated with country great Bonnie Raitt, alt rock trailblazer James Grant, Peter Gabriel and Nanci Griffith. Donald has also shared a stage with legendary avant-garde free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He said: 'When I was growing up in Taynuilt my dad, who taught me accordion, had a reel-to-reel tape player. 'He only had about half-a-dozen tapes. 'One was Sibelius, one was Bobby MacLeod the accordion player from Mull. 'Another was Ornette Coleman. 'It was a strange feeling to meet Ornette all those years later and share a stage with him. 'And trying to figure out how to mix up traditional music with free-form avant-garde jazz. 'He was a lovely man full of enthusiasm. 'Ornette had a great approach towards making music. 'His feeling was if we are experimenting over the period of the concert as long as we got one minute of beauty – that is worth the concert alone. 'I think we got more than that.' The band's major-label debut, 1991's Delirium featured 'Coisich a Ruin', an update version of 400-year-old waulking song which went on to become the UK's first ever Gaelic Top 40 hit. Capercaillie last released an album of new studio material in 2013 with At The Heart of It. Fans will be delighted to hear there will be new material this year. Donald said: 'We're going into the studio when we are all together doing the shows. 'We'll put down some new tracks that we have. 'With the way the world is going with music releases you don't actually have to spend a long time creating a whole album. 'You can just release a couple of tracks digitally and that is what we will do. 'We will get some new stuff out which might see the light of day later in the year. 'There's no going back from the digital world now, that is just the way it is. 'The benefits of that are that as soon as you have a finished track you don't have to wait for the physical process of it being ready on a format. 'You can just drop it on people the next day. I enjoy that side of it.'
Scotsman
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
BBC SSO, Anja Bihlmaier & Javier Perianes review: 'some performance'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... BBC SSO, Anja Bihlmaier & Javier Perianes, City Halls, Glasgow ★★★★ Four formidable women strode through the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's sometimes overwhelmingly powerful concert – well, five, if you also include conductor Anja Bihlmaier (and you really should), who was a fastidious but compelling presence throughout the evening's three eclectic offerings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad First came a parade of Salome, Ophelia and Cleopatra, courtesy of three short pieces – collected together as Trois femmes de légende – by French composer Mel Bonis. There was more than a hint of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov to Bonis's exotic evocations which flowed freely through moods and textures, but the BBC SSO gave a nimble, perceptive account, with Bihlmaier thoroughly alert to the composer's restless swerves of direction and richly conceived musical imagery. Javier Perianes The evening's true star, however, was Elektra, as portrayed in Richard Strauss's most shockingly modernistic opera, which was itself transformed into an 'symphonic suite' (really a massive symphonic poem) by conductor Manfred Honeck and composer Tomáš Ille. Cramming Strauss's orchestral excess into a relentless 35 minutes was a hair-raising prospect, but Bihlmaier tackled the direction with a cool head. Her gleaming clarity and cleanness, however, allowed the music to radiate its incendiary power with searing heat. Seldom can quite so many musicians have been squeezed onto the City Halls stage, and seldom can the venue have shaken with quite as much sheer sound from an orchestra – there were even a few rare moments when Bihlmaier allowed her elegantly sculpted soundscapes to crack open, revealing the seething brutality beneath. It was quite some performance, as deftly paced as it was dramatically dispatched, and it showed the BBCSSO more than up for the challenge.
The Herald Scotland
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Drama and excitement as guest conductor takes up the baton at BBC SSO
City Halls, Glasgow Keith Bruce four stars The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra marketed this live broadcast performance on the box office potential of Spanish pianist Javier Perianes playing Mozart's perennially-popular concerto No 17, and there was nothing wrong with that part of the programme, even if did seem a little strange that the soloist was relying on a score for a work he must have played many times. But for many in the hall, and listening on Radio 3, the real interest lay in the works on either side of the Mozart and in the conductor on the podium. Anja Bihlmaier is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and earlier in the day the announcement of the BBC Proms programme had included the news that she will premiere a new electric guitar concerto by Mark Simpson with Scotland's Sean Shibe on July 22 in the Royal Albert Hall. The work that filled the second half of this concert was also fairly new, the 2016 'symphonic suite' created by Manfred Honeck and Tomas Ille from Richard Strauss's opera Elektra. If the composer himself had crafted such an orchestral concert piece it would surely have sounded much along these lines, incorporating all the most compelling music in the score, culminating in an instrumental performance of the final scene. Read more Keith Bruce Bihlmaier gloried in the huge forces under her baton but was equally attentive to the moments that featured just front desk strings and wind soloists – much of the delight in this half hour of music came from her precision control of the dynamics. The orchestral Elektra may lack the sense of humour in Strauss's tone poems, but in all other respects can sit alongside them as a repertoire piece. The conductor began the concert with another new/old work celebrating females from dramatic tragedy. Melanie Bonis was taught by Cesar Franck and her Trois femmes de legende: Salome; Ophelia; The Dream of Cleopatra share elements of their orchestration with Ravel and Debussy. Composed in the first decade of the 20th century, they were only assembled as a suite a decade ago, which the RSNO and Thomas Sondergard played last Spring. If not quite as epic as the Strauss, it is also assured regular performances by the range of orchestral colour it contains, with terrific opportunities for the wind soloists – and Bihlmaier found all the drama in the lyrically-expressed fate of the Egyptian queen.
Scotsman
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
BBC SSO, Anja Bihlmaier & Javier Perianes review: 'some performance'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... BBC SSO, Anja Bihlmaier & Javier Perianes, City Halls, Glasgow ★★★★ Four formidable women strode through the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's sometimes overwhelmingly powerful concert – well, five, if you also include conductor Anja Bihlmaier (and you really should), who was a fastidious but compelling presence throughout the evening's three eclectic offerings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad First came a parade of Salome, Ophelia and Cleopatra, courtesy of three short pieces – collected together as Trois femmes de légende – by French composer Mel Bonis. There was more than a hint of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov to Bonis's exotic evocations which flowed freely through moods and textures, but the BBC SSO gave a nimble, perceptive account, with Bihlmaier thoroughly alert to the composer's restless swerves of direction and richly conceived musical imagery. Javier Perianes The evening's true star, however, was Elektra, as portrayed in Richard Strauss's most shockingly modernistic opera, which was itself transformed into an 'symphonic suite' (really a massive symphonic poem) by conductor Manfred Honeck and composer Tomáš Ille. Cramming Strauss's orchestral excess into a relentless 35 minutes was a hair-raising prospect, but Bihlmaier tackled the direction with a cool head. Her gleaming clarity and cleanness, however, allowed the music to radiate its incendiary power with searing heat. Seldom can quite so many musicians have been squeezed onto the City Halls stage, and seldom can the venue have shaken with quite as much sheer sound from an orchestra – there were even a few rare moments when Bihlmaier allowed her elegantly sculpted soundscapes to crack open, revealing the seething brutality beneath. It was quite some performance, as deftly paced as it was dramatically dispatched, and it showed the BBCSSO more than up for the challenge.
Telegraph
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Claudia Winkleman to host BBC Traitors Prom
The BBC will stage a Traitors -themed Prom to attract new audiences to classical music. Almost 10 million people watched the series finale of the hit game show in January, and Proms organisers aim to capitalise on the popularity of the programme. The annual season of summer concerts will feature a Traitors Prom hosted by the show's presenter Claudia Winkleman. She will wear a cloak and guide concert-goers through an evening of classical music focussed on themes of deception and betrayal. The show, filmed at a Highland castle, follows contestants in a game of lies and investigation, as they attempt to win £120,000 by trying to identify who among them are 'traitors'. It is understood that a former contestant, opera singer Linda Rands, may feature in the Prom. The Traitors Prom will have an afternoon and an evening performance, and will feature the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Singers. The Singers will reportedly be dressed in the distinctive, long cloaks that feature in the series. The betrayal-themed concert is the latest in a series aimed at attracting a broader public to classical music. In 2024, the BBC raised eyebrows by scheduling pop star Sam Smith to perform during the Proms season, despite some of the singer's previous shows being criticised for having sexualised costumes and choreography. Suzy Klein, the BBC's head of arts and classical music TV, said: 'We know the Traitors is a massive phenomenon. 'We see this as very much hardwired into the DNA of the Proms, which is about reaching the widest and broadest possible audience with classical music. 'Using BBC Proms is a really important thing for us.' Sam Jackson, the head of BBC Radio 3, announced that the first 'all-night Prom' since 1983 had been also scheduled to target a more youthful audience. Mr Jackson added that 'some people may bring sleeping bags'. The radio executive said: 'I would imagine that some people would come, maybe they'll have a small pillow and they'll want to have a lie down.' Other concerts will include a CBeebies Prom, a celebration of the Shipping Forecast, and a Soul Revolution Prom. This event, hosted by Trevor Nelson, will feature songs of protest and politically-themed soul music. BBC bosses have committed to a patriotic Last Night of the Proms, after debates surrounding the potentially colonialist messaging of the finale, which is famed for performances of Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory. The conductors and soloists for the concert will be all-female for the first time in Proms history. The BBC will not weigh in on international conflict, and Russian performers will be welcome at the Proms. Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there had been some moves to boycott Russian performers, and works by Russian composers. The Royal Albert Hall, and not the BBC, will be responsible for policing political messaging and protest during the season. Last year, the Telegraph revealed that the Hall banned 'protest flags' at the Last Night. The patriotic finale is typically filled with audience members carrying the Union Jack, or the flag of the EU. Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, ticketholders were told that 'flags related to protest' and 'hatred' would be confiscated.
