The BBC Scottish Orchestra (Augmented)
Leader, J. Mouland Begbie
Conducted by Ian Whyte
As a composer, Sir John Blackwood McEwen has a long list of big works to his credit, including numerous chamber works and several symphonies. His Symphony in C sharp minor, known as 'Solway', was first performed at Bournemouth in 1922. Each of the four movements has a title and is headed with lines of verse that indicate the mood of the music. The first movement, 'Spring Tide':
Long golden sands edged with a silver streak,
The impetuous surge that races to the shore,
The full and steady motion of the flood -
When Sun and Moon combine to tug the tide.
The second movement, 'Moonlight': 'The tired ocean crawls along the beach, sobbing a wordless sorrow to the moon'. The third movement, 'The Sou'west Wind': ' Sun, wind and cloud shall fail not from the face of it, Stinging, ringing, spindrift, nor the fulmar flying free'.