Borealis
New Dimensions | Part of Nordic Music Days Glasgow
Andrew Manze Conductor
Lawrence Power Viola
Rowan McIlvride DJ
Discover new sounds from Nordic nations and from closer to home, as northern Europe’s most exciting celebration of contemporary music comes to Scotland.
Swedish composer Anders Hillborg’s 2021 Viola Concerto is a thrilling, high-energy ride through glistening sonic landscapes, and it’s performed by its dedicatee, the remarkable British violist Lawrence Power. Fellow Swede Madeleine Isaksson, meanwhile, transports us to the raw, ethereal beauty of her country’s far north.
There’s austere beauty, too, in Sir James MacMillan’s powerful Ayrshire-inspired Second Symphony, written for the SCO in 1999. Find the clues and solve the case in SCO Associate Composer Jay Capperauld’s witty, macabre Death in a Nutshell.
Image: Christopher Bowen
The viola concerto
Our examination of the concerto continues with the viola, whose potential as a solo instrument was long unrecognised.