Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Many issues or ideas live in the realm assuredly marked fantasy, they are kept alive with unhindered love but perhaps with a certain amount of sadness or melancholic abandonment, they wither, they die and are forgotten, only half remembered through the mist and freezing fog that clears momentarily upon waking. The sound of a forlorn piper heralding the start of another day without whimsy and the never achieved fantasy is where most dreams end up and yet in the hands of Nicola Benedetti, the classical violinist, fantasies are more than kept alive, and they are nurtured and respected.
In her latest album, Homecoming, A Scottish Fantasy, Nicola Benedetti surveys the rich legacy from North of the border, the land where the vapour thickens and tastes as sweet as a 40 year Balvenie Whisky being poured gently into a cut crystal glass in the glow of a roaring fire in a Glasgow pub, and adds so heartbreakingly beautiful that the fantasy of many parts of the way of life take themselves out of the shadows and present themselves as independent, living, breathing entities.
There are few instruments that invoke truth and sentimentality in the same stroke of much loved bow, the saxophone declares a dancing heart full of pathos or joy, the doubly bass might catch the rhythm of splendour, the guitar the zest and scream of acceptance but the violin is the one that brings a haunting dejected truth with it, the fantasy made real and nostalgic and it really comes in no better hands than in Nicola Benedetti.
Alongside the B.B.C. Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Phil Cunningham, Julie Fowlis, Aly Bain, Tony Byrne, Duncan Chisholm, Eamon Doorley, Michael McGoldrick, James Macintosh and Ewan Vernal, Nicola Benedetti takes the listener on a magical experience, the lament of the mournful waste of a historic and proud nation but filled with an absolute hope and desire all going hand in hand. From the shrouded magnificence of Inverness, past the lonely highlands and springing heather and into the gentility of Edinburgh and the working hands of Glasgow, Nicola Benedetti captures it all in pieces of music such as Ae Fond Kiss, My Love is Like a Red Rose, the extreme artistry of Mouth Music and Tunes Set, The Gentle Light That Wakes Me, Coisich A Ruin and the uplifting magnificence of Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.
The call for independence is in the air in Scotland and with such a tremendous backdrop of music having been part of the national psyche for generations, Nicola Benedetti arms the musical muscle further by reminding all in the U.K. what Scottish music has given them, a foundation for appreciation.
Homecoming, A Scottish Fantasy is not an invention or caprice; it is a physical genuine piece of authenticity. Tremendous stuff!
Ian D. Hall