Entangled Fortunes Red Note Ensemble

• Edward McGuire (1948- ):
• 1 Elegy 12:35
• 2 Euphoria 16:03
• 3 String Trio 12:50
• 4 Entangled Fortunes 10:16
• 5 Quintet No. 2 15:43
• Total Runtime 01:07:27

Info for Entangled Fortunes

Eddie McGuire is one of Scotland’s greatest living composers. A renaissance man, his compositional voice is informed by a broad wealth of cultural experience and by an unlimited melodic creativity. In this intensely beautiful and unpretentious music, folk-like tunes appear naturally, taking their place in a world of invention large enough to contain minimalist gestures, intense romanticism, meditative silence and sudden drama.

In the second of two discs programmed to initiate their new recording partnership with Delphian, Red Note Ensemble bring passion and care to this music: a token of the regard in which McGuire is held by Scottish musicians of all generations.

Red Note Ensemble is Scotland’s contemporary music ensemble, commissioning and performing new music from Scotland and around the world. The Ensemble was founded in 2008 and draws its members from the deep talent pool of Scottish new music expertise. Red Note is Associate Contemporary Ensemble at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, an Associate Company of the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and Associate Ensemble of the Sound Festival Aberdeen. In 2013 the ensemble made its Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival debut with an acclaimed three-concert series including the UK premiere of James Dillon’s 'New York Triptych'.

“Heartfelt and unambiguous, often straight-up tuneful, the music of Glaswegian composer, folk scholar and socialist Eddie McGuire hasn’t always had the attention it deserves – which makes this survey of chamber works doubly lovely. McGuire’s language takes in minimalism and Romanticism, tango and Gaelic psalms, fiddle tunes and modernism, but the final mix is unfussy and organic.” (The Guardian)

“Refreshingly and compellingly, the Scottish composer’s music disdains allegiance or aversion to any-ism.” (Sunday Times)

“A beguiling, lyrical grace weaves through much of this Scottish composer’s chamber music, and these performances well capture its questing expressiveness.” (Gramophone Magazine)

“the disc offers a lively collection of McGuire's chamber music. Much of the disc is highly affirming, notably Euphoria (1980), a delicious, effervescent work composed at the height of Cold War frost and the Thatcherite government” (BBC Music Magazine)

Red Note Ensemble

Red Note Ensemble
is a Scottish-based professional music ensemble, dedicated to developing and performing contemporary music to the highest standards, and taking the music out to audiences around and beyond Scotland.

We were founded in 2008 by Scottish cellist Robert Irvine, and we are directed by John Harris (Chief Executive) and Robert Irvine (Artistic Director).

We perform the established classics of contemporary music; we commission new music; we develop the work of new and emerging composers from around the world; and we work hard in new spaces to find new audiences. Our performing ensemble is drawn from the deep talent pool of Scottish new music expertise, and we count amongst our players some of the very finest performers working in the UK today.

Red Note made its debut in May 2008 with a recording of Eddie McGuire’s Carrochan suite for Delphian records, and since then ensemble has rapidly gained profile and support.

We aim to tour Scotland twice each year, in the Spring and Autumn, and we run a regular new music series showcasing the work of new composers (Noisy Nights and What Happened) bi-monthly in Edinburgh and Glasgow. We also work to develop the work of new composers, particularly at Glasgow University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

We are delighted to have been appointed Contemporary Ensemble-in-Residence at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow in 2009 for a three-year period, and Associate Company of the Traverse Theatre from January 2010.

This album contains no booklet.