Mr McFall’s Chamber – Further Distillations @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 19 January

McFall’s dissolve all pomp from your classic chamber concert: easy stage chat, a giggling audience and a decisive lack of anything vaguely black tie. It’s Monday night and the dim lights and simple staging ease the imminent stress of the weekly rat race. With a lounge-like ambience we are selfishly grateful for the half full audience, allowing a more intimate atmosphere.

Showcasing composers predominantly from the Scottish traditional music scene, tonight is all about recent and premiering work. Corrina Hewat’s Making the Connection sticks close to her roots, opening the show with a stainless harp solo and prevalent Celtic ornamentation. Play by Gillian Fleetwood offers a hilarious contemporary rendition on being a child, leaving the audience baffled about which point to clap, breathe, laugh or even leave. In contrast, Hamish Napier’s Lament for John McGann drags heavy sentiment from the wooden bones of the ensemble and shows off his ingenuity for harmony.

Composer and fiddle-singer Kate Young ends up deservedly as the main feature, and you can see McFall’s are addicted to the masochism her pieces subject them to. She challenges them as her extra limbs, punching out tight rhythmic chops clashing against dense Eastern European-influenced melodies to match the infinite range of Kate’s Bulgarian-folk-trained voice, even replicating loop and octave pedal effects between vocals and violin, all whilst reading the bloody sheet music. It’s an intense experience, and Borthwick proves an obvious hit. 

Intonation blips nag some pieces while others could benefit from better mediation between classical and trad styles, but it is the fearless experimentation and modest approach that define both the musicians and the composers tonight. [Luisa Brown]