The Glasgow Herald
Sue Wilson
Celtic Connections
Savourna Stevenson, June
Tabor and Danny Thompson
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
SHEER class was writ large over both halves of this spellbinding concert, perfectly complementing performances representing the cream of contemporary tradition.
Longtime vanguard marches on the English and Scottish scenes, Stevenson, Tabor and Thompson make up an impressive sum of parts – whether the whole is greater is hard to say, given their individual potency as performers, but it certainly proved a richly rewarding collaboration. Each has such an array of tones and effects to draw on – the calm, distant sorrow of Tabor’s singing by turns stern and tender, overlaid with bewitchingly delicate expressive detail, Stevenson’s harp equally at home evoking the atmosphere of Mexico or Mali ( in duets of her own compositions with Thompson ) or tracing gently frisky figures behind The Bonnie Bonnie Broom.
Double bass magician Thompson, meanwhile, sounded as though he had at least a trombone and keyboards up there as well, with all his bendings, stretching and blending of plucked notes. A formidable collective weight of accomplishment, combined and articulated with an engagingly light touch.