Saturday 10 July 2010

Various Artists: Scottish Fiddlers to the Fore (1970)




Various Artists: Scottish Fiddlers to the Fore (1970)

This record is old and not in top condition, so there's a lot of pops and crackles. The reason for posting it, however, is the rarity and the standard of fiddle playing.

This album is a live recording of the winners of a one-off fiddle competition held in Perth in November 30th 1969. The judges there were Yehudi Menuhin, Hector MacAndrew, Watson Forbes and James Hunter (Hunter later notated some of the pieces on this record for his book The Fiddle Music of Scotland).

First prize was given to Arthur Scott Robertson of Shetland, who went on to record two LPs using his title: Champion's Choice and Scotland's Champion Fiddler. Second was William MacPherson of Elgin giving an incredible performance of Scott Skinner's Valley of Silence. Third equal went to Angus Cameron of Kirriemuir, who is a descendant of the Cameron Men who were fiddle recording artists in the 1930s, and Florence Burns from Aberdeen.

The second side of the LP features a small selection of fiddle orchestras; I have not included these in this download.

01 Arthur Scott Robertson: Maclean of Pennycross/Maggie Cameron/Duntroon
02 Arthur Scott Robertson: Countess of Crawford/Marquis of Huntly's
03 Arthur Scott Robertson: Greig's Strathspey/Beeswing Hornpipe
04 William MacPherson: Valley of Silence
05 William MacPherson: Mackworth/Mary Walker
06 Angus Cameron: Scott Skinner's Comps to Dr MacDonald/South of the Grampians/John McNeill's Reel
07 Angus Cameron: Beauty of the North/Geordie Affleck
08 Florence Burns: Dargai/Miss Laura Andrew/The Hawk Hornpipe

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Arthur Scott Robertson:

Other albums featuring Angus Cameron:

No comments:

Post a Comment