Calendar of Events
16 March, 2018
1 October, 2017
Harmony Clarinet 2
In this second of an occasional series of concerts featuring unusual members of the clarinet family, the Scottish Clarinet Quartet is joined by Scott Lygate on the Contrabass clarinet (a seriously impressive instrument at nearly nine feet long) to perform music by Glasgow-based composer Graham Hair. Guest mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor is accompanied by a trio of clarinets (ranging in size from sopranino to bass) to sing rarely-performed songs by Stravinsky and Dallapiccola, and the programme is rounded out with the group’s transcriptions of JS Bach’s Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland and sections from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. A great opportunity to enjoy some remarkable chamber music in the beautiful acoustic of St Bride’s Episcopal Church.
Free admission, with retiring collection in aid of the Organ Restoration Fund.
28 September, 2017
Music in the University Lunchtime Recital Series Glasgow
In this concert the Scottish Clarinet Quartet is delighted to be joined by distinguished guest artists Scott Lygate (contrabass clarinet), Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano) and Annini Tsiouti (piano), to perform a wide-ranging programme of music for multiple clarinets in unusual combinations. Glasgow University’s Graham Hair’s Mondrian Studies receive their first performance in the version for four different clarinets (E-flat sopranino, B-flat soprano, B-flat bass, B-flat contrabass), the basset horn is let off its leash for Mendelssohn’s Konzertstück No. 2 in D minor, and with Beth Taylor the group ventures into the rarely-explored territory established by Stravinsky (Berceuses du Chat) and Dallapiccola (Seven Goethe Songs) for voice and trio of clarinets.
18 August, 2017
‘Around the World’ at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Information on this concert will be added shortly.
29 May, 2017
Hidden Door Festival with Rachel Plummer
For our first appearance at Edinburgh’s imaginative Hidden Door festival, we’re joining forces with prizewinning poet Rachel Plummer to deliver a vintage sci-fi themed, multi-media performance on the subject of contact with alien life. Featuring experimental film by award winning film maker Matt Hulse and original music by internationally recognised composer Matt Rogers, woven in between spoken word narrative, The Parlour Guide to Exo-Politics will challenge your view of the universe and your own place in it.
PLEASE NOTE REVISED START TIME OF 1830. DOORS OPEN AT 1800.
28 January, 2017
Celtic Connections with Ros Dunlop
A concert investigating the relationship between music and place: with Ros Dunlop’s programme sound space time exploring the soundworlds of the Australian landscape, its Indigenous roots, and the world of space and time of acoustic and artificial sound; and that of the Scottish Clarinet Quartet presenting works by Scottish and Australian composers including Edward McGuire, Judith Weir, Peter Sculthorpe and Karlin Love. We will also collaborate through joint performances of the music of Glasgow-based Australian composer Graham Hair.
Tickets on the door or from MusicGlue
Sydney-based Ros Dunlop is a clarinettist and bass clarinettist and has been an advocate of new music all her professional life. In particular, she has promoted music written by Australian composers through her performances and recordings. Her current performance and recording project sound space time, tours in Europe in January 2017.
6 November, 2016
Harmony Clarinet 1
Scottish Clarinet Quartet with Annini Tsiouti (piano)
Composers have long delighted in the broad range of compositional possibilities offered to them by the diverse members of the clarinet family, each with its own character and individual charm. In this concert, the first of an occasional series, the familiar B-flat instrument is accompanied by its cousins the cheeky E-flat sopranino, the sonorous B-flat bass, and the melancholic Basset Horn. Joined by virtuoso pianist Annini Tsiouti, the Scottish Clarinet Quartet performs Graham Hair’s Mondrian Studies (UK premiere), Felix Mendelssohn’s charming but rarely-heard Concert Pieces for Clarinet, Basset Horn and Piano, and works by Matt Rogers and William Byrd.
Free Admission, with retiring collection in aid of the Organ Restoration Fund (St Bride’s Episcopal Church).
28 August, 2016
Torphichen Summer Nights
Around the World in Eighty Minutes
A musical tour of the globe in the capable hands of the Scottish Clarinet Quartet. The well-known Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by naturalized British composer G.F. Handel sets the theme of travel, and sends us across the English Channel to encounter the music of the villages and gypsies of rural France. Passing through the Black Forest to take the Air by Handel’s German contemporary J.S. Bach, we go further East to discover exotic rhythms and instruments in Bulgaria, Borodin’s beautiful Notturno, and celebratory Klezmer music in Russia. Travelling on to the New World in jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman’s footsteps, we swing across New York and California in the company of Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin and Dave Brubeck, before flying south to Argentina for a dancing lesson, the Histoire du Tango. Finally, we sail home over the Atlantic to our own temperate island, to the strains of the cheerful Colonel Bogey march.
27 September, 2015
Wringhim, His Demons
The players of the Scottish Clarinet Quartet are joined by actor Crawford Logan to present an evening centred on the world of Scottish Romanticism, which produced Burns, Scott and Hogg, and where rural beliefs in the supernatural were increasingly challenged by a growing urban culture. James Hogg was split between his sheep-farming origins and life in literary Edinburgh: music and text pick up on his friendship and rivalry with Sir Walter Scott and explore the debt that Scotland’s cultural identity owes to its folklore. With original works by composers Tom David Wilson, Judith Weir, Francine Trester, Becky Milne and Richard Ingham.
The Scottish Clarinet Quartet is very grateful for the support of the Hope Scott Trust which will enable this event to take place.
Listen to musical excerpts from our Soundcloud page.
25 September, 2015
Many Miles Away…
Join us for a programme of music and spoken word presented by the Scottish Clarinet Quartet and actor Crawford Logan (who recently portrayed Sir Walter Scott in Allan Massie’s The Ragged Lion), performed in the beautiful setting of the library at Abbotsford, Scott’s country house. Directly inspired by the writings of Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg, the concert will feature the first performance of Tom David Wilson’s Wringhim His Demons and the UK première of Francine Trester’s Many Miles Away, accompanied by works with their origins in Scottish traditional music from composers including Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music. Drinks from 7pm, performance starts at 7.30pm.
The Scottish Clarinet Quartet is very grateful for the support of the Hope Scott Trust and James Sneddon which will enable this event to take place.
Listen to musical excerpts from our Soundcloud page.