Hail Caledonia

SOMM Recordings is delighted to release Hail Caledonia - Scotland in Music, a musical salute to their homeland by conductor Iain Sutherland and the City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded live in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall in 1995-96 and newly remastered, these vivacious performances also feature the City of Glasgow Pipe Band, City of Glasgow Chorus, and bagpipers David Wotherspoon and Iain McDonald. Sutherland provides brilliant orchestral arrangements of The Black Bear Salute, reputedly the British army's fastest regimental march, and the timeless Amazing Grace, together with his own colorful Three Scottish Castles Suite. Roy Williamson's anthemic Flower of Scotland is heard alongside Robert Docker's Abbey's Craig, better known as Scots Wha Hae, and Granville Bantock's luscious treatment of a traditional Scottish waulking song, Kishmul's Galley. Also featured is Mendelssohn's lively Scherzo, fueled by a traditional 'Scotch snap', from his Scottish Symphony and Malcolm Arnold's wonderfully realized Four Scottish Dances. Music by Granville Bantock, Eric Coates, Ernest Tomlinson and Alexander McKenzie is heard alongside the theme tunes to two hugely popular Scottish television dramas, Hamish McCunn's Land of the Mountain and the Flood, theme to Sutherland's Law, and Arthur Blake's Take the High Road. And to end, the infectious Devil's Finale/Reel o' Tulloch from Ian Whyte's ballet score Donald of the Burthens. The result is a glorious musical celebration of the Saltire and the tartan, with informative booklet notes by Robert Matthew-Walker. Iain Sutherland's previous SOMM releases include two volumes of Great Classic Film Music, the first a Classic FM Album of the Week (Ariadne 5006/5009), Musical Opinion's "fully recommended" Leonard Bernstein: Broadway to Hollywood (Ariadne 5002), the enthusiastically received Favourite Orchestral Classics (Ariadne 5012) and In London Town (SOMMCD 0117), which MusicWeb International hailed for it's "sparkling performances of some of the cream of light music".