As I write 61 tickets have been sold via the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Box Office for tonight’s gala recital of piobaireachd ‘Classical Pipe Music – Scotland’s Hidden Treasure’.
Cash entry will be available at the door of the venue St Cecilia’s Hall, Niddry Street, Edinburgh, from 7pm. Tickets are £15 or £12 concession.
By Robert Wallace, President of the Piobaireachd Society
There will be six piobaireachd played, three either side of an interval. The pipers are last year’s Silver Medallists John McDonald, Aberdeen, and Brodie Watson-Massey, Edinburgh, and Senior Piobaireachd winner at Oban 2024, Alasdair Henderson, Dunoon. Tunes and the order of play:
Phantom Piper of the Corrieyairick ……………………………… Alasdair Henderson
Stewart’s White Banner……………………………… Brodie Watson-Massey
Tulloch Ard…………………………………… John McDonald
Interval
Park Piobaireachd No2 …………………… Brodie Watson-Massey
Prince’s Salute ……………………………………… John McDonald
Red Speckled Bull …………………………………………… Alasdair Henderson
One of the attractions of the recital is that there is no break in sound throughout; there is no tuning in the auditorium, one piobaireachd flows seamlessly into the next.
Ever since the recital started in 2018, this feature has always proven very attractive to all listeners. The audience usually comprises an eclectic mix of piobaireachd enthusiasts, inquisitive tourists, and music lovers intrigued and keen to learn more about ceòl mòr.
A detailed programme for the evening has been produced. It has short bios of the pipers and stories of the tunes. As you can see from the list above these are all outstanding pieces of music testing the piper’s capacity for memory, technique, tuning and expression.
But this is not a competition. It is important to dismiss this from the mind, difficult though that is for professional pipers and judges skilled in searching out the negative. No, this evening is about much more than that.
Edinburgh University’s St Cecilia’s Hall is an ideal venue. Not only visually stunning, it has an acoustic that seems to bring the best out of the pipe; the harmonics fair ring round the room.
The pipers can relax knowing the audience is theirs for the taking. They want to enjoy themselves.
At the end of proceedings, 9-9.30pm, the pipers and audience repair to the small museum beneath the hall where we enjoy a refreshment and a chat. I look forward to welcoming everyone to what is always a very sociable and enjoyable event.
