Move Records Australian classical & art music, est. 1968
Front cover art for Unity

Unity

A wide-ranging blend of traditional, contemporary and original Scottish music — from haunting Gaelic airs and foot-stomping dance sets to chamber textures and evocative new works.

Catherine Fraserviolin Duncan Smithpiano
  • CatalogueMCD 312
  • Released6 Jul 2006
  • Playing time62 minutes 22 seconds

Listen & tracks

4 of 12 tracks have a preview · 12 works · 62:22

  1. 1 Aberdeen Catherine Fraser 5:02
  2. 2 Cromarty 4:07
  3. 3 MacDonald's Jigs 4:46
  4. 4 Chapel Keithack 8:11
  5. 5 The Lads of Duns 4:20
  6. 6 Sunrise Departed 5:40
  7. 7 Jeasid's Tune 3:33
  8. 8 Eu-dochas mo Chridhe My Heart's Despair 4:04
  9. 9 Miss Drummond's Favourite 4:09
  10. 10 Hardie and Clark 7:40
  11. 11 Fiddler's Sundays 5:34
  12. 12 Farewell to Grey Street 5:16

On this, their third recording, Catherine Fraser and Duncan Smith combine technical mastery with their trademark emotional depth. Unity takes the listener through stories and tunes from the 17th century to the 21st, handled with sensitivity and a distinctive personal touch.

Festival audiences on three continents have called their playing incredible, wonderful and deeply moving. This is a true duo rather than soloist and accompanist; their musical connection is plain in the sonic space they create. As the cover defines it, unity means oneness, harmony or concord — something whole composed of separate parts, arranged to a single design or purpose, and mutual agreement.

That agreement shows in their creative arrangements, in the blend of Catherine's 1821 Matthew Hardie violin with the Move Studios grand piano, and in the mix of works by William Marshall, James Scott Skinner, Malcolm Reavell, John Morris Rankin, Fraser and Smith themselves, and pieces from the collections of Alexander McGlashan and Patrick MacDonald that Catherine found while researching in Scotland.

Part traditional, part folk, part classical, part world music, Unity belongs in any serious musician's collection.

Reviews

Thoughtful, toe-tapping and intelligent, what more could you want

— Roger Giles, realmusic

Wow

— William Crawford, Highlander Music

Catherine Fraser & Duncan Smith played up a storm. . . Lots of light and shade, fast reels, elegant strathspeys, slow airs, Scottish, Cape Breton - all had our audience riveted.

— John Logan, NZ Folk

Artists

Photograph of Catherine Fraser

Catherine Fraser

violin

Catherine Fraser is one of the Southern Hemisphere's leading Scottish fiddle players and is currently based in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. She began playing the violin at age 8 and continued to study classical music at secondary and tertiary level, gaining a Bachelor of Music Teaching in 1997 from Adelaide University.

 Photograph of Duncan Smith

Duncan Smith

piano

Duncan began playing piano in the Scottish idiom in 1980 as the founding pianist in Barbara McOwen's internationally known Scottish dance band "Tullochgorum". He has recorded four CDs of Scottish Country Dance Music -- Dancin' Music with fiddler Susan Worland in 1987, Kardinia Capers (2002) and The Southern Touch (2005) with David South and his Band, and Old Favourites and Odd Couples in 2004 with his current music partner Catherine Fraser.

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$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

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Performers

Details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Total playing time
62 minutes 22 seconds
Release date
Categories
Classical, Folk music
Genres
Folk, World & Cross-cultural
Musical work copyright
© Move Records
Sound recording copyright
℗ 2006 Move Records
Catalogue
MCD 312
EAN
9314574031225