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Playing the waiting game
Caption: Fusion: Andy Thorburn.; New music has become an increasingly significant feature of Celtic Connections over the past few years and, as the annual January celebration enters its sixth incarnation, composers both inured to and totally unused to the concept of commissioned work are nervously awaiting audience reactions to their labours. Some of the pieces have been heard before, although not in Scotland's central belt. Eddie McGuire's massive L'Epopee Celtique, which features in the opening concert tonight, was originally commissioned for the Interceltique Festival in Lorient last August and enjoyed the acclaim of 6000 Bretons on its premiere. And the Cauld Blast Orchestra received similarly enthusiastic, albeit from a less populous audience, for its Stones and the Sea suite in Tobermory in June. For Andy Thorburn, however, whose Celtic Connections commission, Tuath Gu Deas, opens the New Voices series, which also sees a debut commission from harper Karen Marshalsay, the coming days are going to be hard on the nerve-ends. A vastly experienced musician who has become the first-call keyboards player on the Scottish folk and traditional...