Scotland the Brave — A celebration of Scotland in music and dance
Introduction and Fanfare
Lament: The Dark Island
Pipe Medley
Scotland the Brave Fanfare
One Hundred Pipers
Sing to Me the Auld Scotch Songs
March of the Cameron Men
Boolavogue / The Mason’s Apron
The Battle of the Somme
Sail Boat
Colleen Rintamaki Waltz
Brigadoon Medley
Skye Boat Song
MacGregor’s Gathering
Ye Banks and Braes
The Road to the Isles
Waly, Waly
Pumpkin’s Fancy
Wild Mountain Thyme / Go Laddie
The Gael
Scottish Singalong (The Green Hills of Tyrol / The Campbells Are Coming / Loch Lomond / Flower of Scotland / Scotland the Brave)
The Landlord’s Walk / The Wise Maiden
Highland Cathedral
Amazing Grace
Auld Lang Syne
Encore – Scotland the Brave
Andrew Fuller (pipes); Victoria Police Pipe Band; Marcus Holden (fiddle): Suellen Cusack and Suzanne Kompass (sopranos); Gregory Moore (tenor); Samuel Dundas (baritone)
Queensland Pops Orchestra and Queensland Choir/Sean O’Boyle
rec. 3 July 2010, live, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane
ABC CLASSICS DVD 076 2795 [116:00]
ABC CLASSICS CD 476 4130 [49:08 + 56:02]
They hold an annual show in Brisbane, Queensland, to celebrate Scotland in music and dance: a tattoo, in other words, held on the concert stage of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The performance in July 2010 can now be appreciated on CD or DVD. I’ve played them both, cementing visually what I heard earlier, as the DVD arrived later than the CD. A couple of the CD tracks are missing from the DVD; numbers 9 and 10 from the first of the two discs, which are the Drum Fanfare and, rather disappointingly, the ‘Scottish Piano Rhapsody’ played by Catherine Lynagh.
Still, if your yen is for reel and pipe, for athletic Canadian dancers in saucy kilts, and for eager young singers, then your Caledonian soul may be pleased, if not necessarily stirred, by this appealing musical evening. Sean O’Boyle is the music director and conductor - yes, he is kilted. As he mentions in one of the brief DVD extras, the intention is for songs old and new to keep things alive and interesting. In that respect I’m sure he succeeds nicely, as everyone seems to be having a jolly good time. There are sword dancers, waggish jokes from the folk fiddler, Marcus Holden, who you know is doing a good job because he makes members of the Queensland Pops laugh. I quite liked him too, though he did remind me of a rather older Nigel Kennedy, especially when he mimes being half cut in his medley (CD2, track 7).
The young singers are very personable, singing with microphones. The pipe soloist is the remarkable Andrew Fuller, whose pipes were made in 1912, as he notes in his interview in the extras. And the fetching highland dancer is Canadian Colleen Rintamaki, a multiple world champion and exciting presence whenever she appears. I found the most soul-stirring piece was Fuller’s haunting performance of Highland Cathedral, the Michael Korb-Ulrich Roever piece, heard here for solo pipe, pipe band and orchestra. It set the seal on an engaging evening which left the audience pleased, and excited.
Jonathan Woolf
Left the audience pleased, and excited.