An absolute gem in this year’s Fringe, this concert showed what fun can be had through creativity and musical collaboration, particularly when the musicians have such admiration and respect for one another as these two: Su a Lee, Assistant-Principal Cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, well known for her versatility in many genres of music and Hamish Napier, whom she introduced as one of Scotland’s most talented folk musicians and a composer, who also happens to be her husband.
On Saturday afternoon in a packed Northesk Parish Church in Musselburgh, Su-a and Hamish brought us a melding of different styles of music. Scottish folk songs and Hamish’s original compositions were interspersed with the six movements of Bach’s first cello suite.
Su-a Lee opened the concert with a piece for solo cello – an arrangement of Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss by the late Kevin McCrae, her fondly remembered friend and colleague from the SCO, who had introduced Su-a to Scottish traditional music, many years ago. After beginning simply, Kevin’s arrangement weaves the melody into an undulating line, reminiscent of the Prelude from Bach’s first suite. Su-a followed this with that prelude, playing with a wonderful lightness of touch and an airiness in the phrasing.
Hamish then joined the stage at the piano to play two strathspeys with Su-a, including one of his own. The strathspey is a traditional dance style originating from Hamish’s beloved Speyside, where he spent his childhood and now lives. He explained how the landscape of this area inspires many of his compositions. Hamish too, is a versatile musician: singer, pianist and flautist. I was struck by his eloquent voice in Burns’ Silver Tassie and his flute playing in another of his compositions, a hornpipe called The Wee Plank which came with a story involving a stash of cash hidden under a floorboard!
As the programme unfolded, we were drawn into their world as they described their home in the Cairngorms National Park where they lived during lockdown. We heard about the Scots pine under which Su-a played her cello and made several recordings. She chose a piece which Beatrice Harrison famously played outdoors accompanied by nightingales for BBC broadcasts in the 1920s: Songs My Mother Taught Me by Dvorák. The concert had been introduced as ‘impossible to categorise’ but it was still surprising to hear this romantic piece, deliciously played by the duo.
When it came to the Bach Sarabande, Su-a played unaffectedly and finished with a little run at the end that led into to Hamish’s compositions inspired by Scotland’s native trees. And then, as Su-a played the Minuets, Hamish joined in at the piano subtly at first before introducing some lush chords that would have made Bach smile. The final Bach movement for me was perfection, as Hamish seamlessly switched instruments so that flute and cello danced the Gigue together. Genius!
The audience loved it and were treated to two encores with Su-a playing … the saw (!) accompanied by Hamish at the piano. The first was a tribute to their mothers, who were in the audience, and then a piece they had played outside every week during lockdown: Somewhere over the Rainbow. This was astonishing – that a saw can produce such a musical sound – well it can when Su-a is playing it.
The whole programme was crafted so well and played so beautifully, the rapport between them shared so generously that you couldn’t help but come away smiling almost as much as Su-a!
Liv's Music World 