First published in The Herald on 30 April, 2014

Vilde Frang tends to attract adjectives like feisty, quirky, organic, irreverent. “There is nothing polished or calculated about her playing,” wrote one German critic; “Vilde Frang is only herself,” wrote another. In an industry that churns out palatably photogenic young female violinists at a rate of knots, this 27-year-old Norwegian has managed to retain an image that is less manufactured and more interesting than most. Her publicity photos are modest, almost folksy, and in interviews she is open and unassuming. More to the point, her full-blooded playing is never for show. Her interpretive choices will throw up plenty of surprises, and probably some uncomfortable challenges, but they’ll always be her own.

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First published in The Herald on 23 April, 2014

There is a sea current that runs around the island of Foula to the far west of Shetland. It’s called the Moder-dy – an old Norn name that means ‘mother wave’ – and it occurs regardless of wind or weather in the place where two tidal streams collide. Local sailors use it as a navigational tool when travelling between Foula and the mainland; for the untrained eye it’s barely visible from the surface.

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First published in The Herald on 16 April, 2014

This week the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform one of the great behemoths of the orchestral repertoire: Mahler’s last complete symphony, his Ninth. It’s a work of huge, complicated and devastating emotion – the composer Alban Berg called it “the expression of a tremendous love for this earth, the longing to live on it peacefully…”

Certainly Mahler had death on his mind while he was composing the 90-minute score in 1909-10. His four-year-old daughter Putzi had recently succumbed to diphtheria and he himself had been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition; he died in 1911 without ever having heard a full performance of Ninth. Four huge movements shift through serene resignation, bitter-sweet nostalgia and brutal nihilism; the final retreat into silence speaks of either bleak despair or miraculous transcendence, largely depending on the state of mind of the listener and the performers. Either way, a good account of the Ninth should leave everyone in the concert hall feeling utterly pummelled.

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First published in The Herald on 9 April, 2014

There is no real way to cram a raga. India’s classical music is traditionally passed down from guru to pupil over decades of tutelage that encompasses mind, body and soul – it’s a near-spiritual relationship that cannot be replaced by books or online tutorials. The great sitar player Ravi Shankar once wrote that he felt “appalled” when he heard of students learning from a tape: “how can anyone even compare the foundation and solidity of knowledge learned for years directly from a guru to today’s hourly lessons and computer culture?”

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