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   Web Issue 3147 May 14 2008   
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Mr McFall’s Chamber, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh
ROB ADAMSMarch 21 2008

Mission Accomplished. In this latest of the Scottish Arts Council's TuneUp tours, violinist Robert McFall's admirably elastic chamber group sought to produce an affirmation of the talent and musical vision of the late Martyn Bennett.

Bennett, who died at the cruelly young age of 33 in 2005 and who would have enjoyed McFall's agreeably absent-minded, informal presentation, followed such a diverse muse, from composing classical pieces to fuelling raves with electronic beats and bagpipes. So for McFall and his eight-strong crew to encompass virtually all of Bennett's many phases, and still have room to introduce new work in the Bennett spirit and reprise a companion piece in Eddie McGuire's by turns innocent and deeply emotional Nocturnes, was quite an achievement.

Mind you, Bennett pretty much wrapped up his entire field of interest in the string-quartet-with-beats package of Aye, which was given a notably vigorous interpretation here, including an electric - in every sense - violin solo by a typically wholehearted and thoroughly involved Greg Lawson. Fraser Fifield, taking the role that might have been Bennett's own by playing both Highland and lowland bagpipes and low whistle, was also outstanding, negotiating Bennett's twisting melodies with mastery and real feeling and improvising a superbly imaginative whistle solo on his own Kilchoan Ferry.

If Bennett's titles were occasionally prosaic, simply listing the instruments involved and the key to be played in, he never stinted in compositional or arranging effort. His setting of the Irish reel Swallowtail, played here as the deserved encore, captured the innate, direct beauty of traditional music while emphasising its rhythmical power and emotional pull.


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