Su-a Lee – Dialogues – Mackintosh Church – Celtic Connections – January 21, 2025

Su-a Lee

I’ve had the album, Dialogue, by cellist Su-a Lee, since it was released, and I like the fusion of classical and folk music. They sit well together.

I was very much looking forward to her concert at Celtic Connections and as It was a dry night, I walked from the Royal Concert Hall to the Mackintosh Church and slipped into a chair at the back just before the performance began.

Her guests were long-time friends and collaborators, Donald Shaw, her husband Hamish Napier, and fiddle maestro, Duncan Chisholm. They performed some selections from the album and some stunning music that they had composed.

The first set with Donald started life as a series of tune ideas and as Su-a couldn’t decide which one to use, put them all together as a Baroque Suite, the first track on the album.

The Water Set was about music inspired by rivers and stretches of water from her guest’s home areas. The Waltz of the Grey River was from Duncan’s 2012 album Affric. Hamish’s The Dance is on his 2016 album The River and Corryvreckan, is about a whirlpool between the Islands of Jura and Scarba. It’s from Donald’s 2013 album Hebrides – Islands On The Edge Original Score. It was a spellbinding performance by four incredibly talented musicians playing to an appreciative audience in a packed venue.

But the absolute highlight for me was Su-a Lee’s opening solo of Ae Fond Kiss, which she has included on the album as a dedication to its arranger, the late Kevin McCrae. He was her friend, and colleague from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She credits him with introducing her to Scottish Folk Music.

That one piece demonstrated the emotional depth which the cello is capable of in the hands of an exceptional musician.  It was still dry at the end of the concert, so I decided to walk all the way back to the city centre.

But before I left, I captured a copy of the just released double vinyl album of Dialogues. It would have been impolite not to. It is a thing of great beauty with lots of photographs and notes. And it sounds so much better than digital.

HUGH TAYLOR

Photograph – copyright – https://www.abcassidyphotography.com/