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Concert review from avowal Music Club!

1/25/2017

REVIEW
BARDIC TRIO
SUNDAY 22nd January 2017
What a start to Cowal Music Club’s first live concert of 2017 when the Bardic Trio, Jamie MacDougall, tenor, Sharron Griffiths, harp and Matthew McAllister, guitar, played to a packed Hanover Street Hall last Sunday afternoon. Their professionalism and musicianship certainly cheered the audience up on a dreach Sunday afternoon.
They opened with three Burn’s songs arranged by Scottish composer Eddie McGuire, who is no stranger to Cowal Music Club. He was the composer that the club commissioned to commemorate the club’s 70 years a couple of years ago and he enjoys coming to be part of the audience whenever artists play his compositions.
The Trio started with ‘The Winter It Is Past’ which introduced the audience to Jamie’s agile voice capable of seamless transitions from lower register to mellifluous high register. He then followed with ‘The De’ils Awa Wi’ The Exciseman’ when his voice rang out with thrilling intensity and, finely, hefinished with a heartfelt interpretation of ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ that displayed a variety of tone including singing of the finest delicacy showing richness and the ability to convey feelings. Eddie’s arrangement, without a doubt, was melodic and so accomplished and the trio’s playing flawless.
Matthew’s playing ‘Farewell to Stromness’ by Peter Maxwell Davies was mesmerising and riveting.

Next it was Sharron’s turn who introduced the audience to a selection of Welsh songs opening with a breathtaking harp performance of John Thomas’s ‘Watching The Wheat’
The first half finished with a haunting interpretation of ‘ArHyd Y Nos’ ( All through the Night), again arranged by EddeMcGuire, and sung by Jamie with elegant phrasing and haunting effects.
The second half started with a selection of Irish pieces beginning with ‘My Gentle Harp’ played by Matthew and ending with Jamie’s rendition of ‘Minstrel Boy’ by Thomas Moore.
The concert finished with a selection of songs by Burns, again arranged by Eddie McGuire, starting with ‘Rattlin’ Roarin’ Willie’, ‘The Slaves Lament’ and the wonderful but highly emotional ‘For All That An’ All That’ that produced a wonderful combination of harp, guitar and tenor. The ovation from the audience said it all as they stamped their feet and clapped refusing to let the Trio leave the stage.

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Concert review from the Buteman

1/25/2017

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an unforgettable evening with the Bardi Trio

KAREN KEITH Email 13:13Monday 23 January 2017

One concert-goer remarked that she’d “Never forget this evening” - a sentiment surely shared by all who attended Bardic Trio’s performance on Friday. The ensemble - comprising Scottish tenor Jamie McDougall, Welsh harpist Sharron Griffiths, and Scottish guitarist Matthew McAllister - treated the Rothesay audience to s election of Celtic works which proved to be the perfect remedy to a cold winter’s night on Bute. The Bardic Trio in action in Trinity Church on Friday evening. Introducing the trio, Jamie remarked that they were delighted to be on Bute, joking that they’d turned down the opportunity to perform at the new US President’s inauguration to be there! Although Jamie apologised for the cold he was suffering from, it was hardly noticable as he, Sharron and Matthew launched into Robert Burn’s ‘Ae Fond Kiss’. Performed with real sensitivity and feeling, it was clear to see why the trio is held in such high regard Jamie’s vocals were crisp and clear, and a delight to hear in the superb acoustics of Rothesay’s Trinity Church.

Solo performances from both Matthew and Sharron were among some of the evening’s highlights. Matthew’s rendition of ‘Farewell to Stromness’ was both soothing and measured and demonstrated the depth of emotion in the music. Sharron, paying tribute to her Welsh roots, played John Thomas’ ‘Watching the Wheat’. A stunning, delicate performance of a tragic love story played expertly by Sharron. Other combinations of the trio saw Matthew and Sharron team up to perform ‘Clychae Aberdyfi’, a traditional Welsh song, and ‘The Meeting of the Waters’, which is an Irish song by Thomas Moore.

Among the evening’s highlights, without a doubt, were the trio’s performances of the works of Burns. Jamie’s high-energy rendition of ‘Rattlin’ Roarin’ Willie’ was a real treat and left many in amazement at how he was able to catch his breath in time for each verse! But it was ‘A Man’s a Man for A That’ which stole the show. Jamie himself remarked that the song “should be taken up by the world as an anthem”, and the ensemble’s performance of that particular piece was a prime example of the power and beauty of the song.
The next concert in Bute Arts Society’s winter programme will be held on Friday, February 17, and features the Roxburgh Quartet (string quartet). Tickets are £8, free to students, and the concert begins at 7.30pm. Mark it in your diaries now!

Read more at: http://www.buteman.co.uk/whats-on/music/an-unforgettable-evening-with-the-bardic-trio-1-4346402

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Review from Strathearn Herald

1/25/2017

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for Strathearn Herald:
Strathearn Music Society – The Bardic Trio, Wed 18 Jan
“Celtic Music Re-imagined” was the title of last Wednesday’s SMS concert in St Andrew’s Hall, Crieff, and the line-up of performers, as so often on these occasions, was slightly wide of the mainstream, including the varied and contrasting talents of tenor Jamie MacDougall, harpist Sharron Griffiths and guitarist Matthew McAllister. Each one an accomplished and established soloist, together they presented an intriguing programme which explored the music and verse of the Scots, Irish and Welsh in a manner which was novel yet preserved just the right blend of “tradition” to balance the less familiar.
Jamie McDougall is rightly known for his versatility and he has, quite simply, a lovely voice which seems just as much at home with Robert Schumann as with Robert Burns, half a dozen of whose songs featured in this concert in arrangements by Scottish composer Eddie McGuire. Indeed there was much of the spirit and sound of McGuire evident throughout the evening, highlighting all the benefits and strengths that can derive from crossing the boundaries between “classical” and “folk” music.
And the harp, in the hands of Sharron Griffiths, proved a true powerhouse of expression across a similar range of idioms – as the quintessential Celtic soloist, as the perfect singer-sensitive accompanist and, more unusually, as duettist withclassical guitar (the latter partnership made possible by tasteful and subtle amplification which produced some ravishing sounds).
On his own account Matthew McAllister offered a convincing harp impersonation of his own (“My Gentle Harp” by Irishman Thomas Moore, arranged by Gerald Garcia) as well as holding the audience spellbound with Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Farewell to Stromness”.
Sometimes a good deal of imagination goes into creating the idea and realisation of a concert, and this event came over as a thoroughly bespoke, well-proportioned and thoughtfully considered entertainment. The natural charm of the entertainers themselves served only to enhance the enjoyment they gave.
Next concert: Wednesday, 15 February, Piatti Quartet
Howard Duthie

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Bardic Trio Album launch tour January & February 2017

1/8/2017

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Concert review from avowal Music Club!

Concert review from the Buteman

an unforgettable evening with the Bardi Trio

Review from Strathearn Herald

Bardic Trio Album launch tour January & February 2017

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