Entitled The Sound of Scotland, this afternoon’s performance by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Martyn Brabbins featured only one composer born, bred and based in the country: Sir James MacMillan. Polymath William Wallace, whose late 19th century symphony “The Creation” ended the programme, lived much of his life in London, and Glasgow-born Iain Hamilton, whose 1950 Clarinet Concerto soloist Robert Plane has recently championed, moved there when he was six years old and spent much of his life in the USA.
…
Virtuoso clarinettist Robert Plane has recorded Hamilton’s concerto with Brabbins and the SSO more recently, on a recent Champs Hill label CD, and this team were into every detail of the Walton-esque work, including a crisp exchange with orchestra leader Laura Samuel in the first movement, an Adagio sereno that has a relaxed feel common to better-known works for the instrument, and a very lively contrasting finale.
