Although Carlos Núñez is a renowned Galacian pipe player, throughout the first half of the concert he predominantly played a wide range of flutes of various sizes and showed himself to be an excellent flautist as well.

The opening pieces were well suited to having an orchestra accompanying him, as quite a few were film scores, which always sound great done live although they did not drown out the flute at all.

This says a lot about the both Carlos and the RSNO as they had only had one quick run through beforehand as he had been stuck in London until Saturday due to the bad weather there.

Carlos was also joined on stage with his brother on drums & bodhran and another Spaniard on the guitar which added to the intensity of some of the later pieces.

In the second half, he played more of the bagpipes and was

then joined on stage by five Scottish pipers from around the country and again later by Fiona and Kirsty Johnson on the fiddle and accordion, who had been recommended to Carlos by none other than Phil Cunningham.

By the the end of the recital, he had the audience linking pinkies and dancing around the auditorium downstairs in a Galacian folk dance. When it came to the encores, he also had some of them up on stage and a couple of the RSNO musicians joined in as well!

Ruth Roy