Clouds Harp Quartet

St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

2 June 2017

I'm not going to write too much about this concert, because I'm going to see the group again tonight and I think it will be much better to talk about that instead. This was effectively a short (45 minutes) taster for tonight's concert. It was free, and held in the middle of St. Giles while it was open to the public, meaning that people were milling around and talking and taking photos and generally being touristy, and it was all a bit distracting from the music. The music itself sounded fine, and the playing was flawless, obviously, but the voices didn't always project clearly over the background noise.

In the allocated 45 minutes, they played a couple of their older pieces (Pinus Sylvestris and one movement from Water) and the rest was new music. And it's very difficult to talk about new music after just one listen, especially in less than perfect circumstances.

Plenty of people did stop to sit and listen, though, and the reaction was generally very good, so I hope some of those people turn up tonight too and see what this group can really do.

As a free bonus on top of tonight's concert, I'm not going to complain, but I expect the proper thing tonight to be a lot better.