Scotland

Catriona Macdonald & Annbjorg Lien – Traverse Theatre

It was, as one might expect, a famously fiddly evening at the Traverse Theatre, as Shetland’s Catriona Macdonald and Norway’s Annbjørg Lien brought together a programme rich in Scandinavian and Shetland tunes, shared history and extraordinary musicianship.

Presented as the final concert in this season’s Soundhouse series, the evening was built around the musical relationship between two players who first met when they were barely teenagers. That history mattered. This was not simply a meeting of two virtuosos, impressive though both undoubtedly are, but a conversation between traditions, between islands and sea routes, and between generations of musicians passing music from one hand to the next.

Macdonald was open, warm and generous throughout, speaking movingly about returning home to Shetland after 40 years and noting that Shetlanders are full of music, art and fun. There was also a strong sense of scholarship as well as performance, she has just completed her PhD, a 120,000 word study of the missing women of the Shetland fiddle tradition. That detail gave the evening a deeper resonance. This was joyful music, certainly, but it was also music with memory, lineage and recovery woven through it.

The two fiddles were very different animals. Macdonald’s Shetland fiddle had the lift, bite and sparkle one might expect, while Lien’s Norwegian instrument produced a flatter, more mournful and shimmering tone, at times almost sitar like in its resonance. In duet, the two created some remarkable textures, including one beautiful passage where the instruments seemed to merge into an almost bagpipe like sound, rich, sustained and haunting.

Lien spoke memorably about music as a shimmering field of collaboration and encouragement, one entered by young players who are guided by older musicians, climbing on the shoulders of those who came before them. That image seemed to define the concert. There were shout outs to younger fiddle players, including Holly Clarke and Brittany Haas, whose tunes helped bring a youthful energy to the first half. After the interval, the two fiddlers returned to music they had played together when they were 11 and 13, a touching reminder of just how far back this musical friendship goes.

The supporting musicians were much more than accompaniment. Inge Thomson, also from Shetland, brought accordion, voice and dry humour, joking that she was only on stage because she was the cheapest, and joked of her musical journey,“from Fair Isle via Pathhead”. Her solo song, Safe in My Skin, about women transforming into hares, was one of the more intriguing departures of the evening. James Fagan, on bouzouki and guitar, added warmth and drive, and sang a beautiful version of Lover’s Ghost. James Mackintosh, hot from Shooglenifty and now an increasingly familiar figure in my reviewing life, was excellent throughout, his percussion giving the evening shape, momentum and propulsion.

One of the most affecting pieces was Betty Mowat, part of a commissioned work by Lien for the North Sea Festival in Norway. Dedicated to the Shetland knitter who was lost at sea and eventually drifted all the way to Norway, where she was rescued, it beautifully captured the North Sea not as a barrier but as a place of connection, danger and survival. Thomson’s vocal contribution gave the piece an added emotional charge.

There was plenty of liveliness too, including a feminist sea shanty by Nancy Kerr that almost got the company rocking. Almost, because Traverse 1 remains a slightly awkward space for this kind of music. It is a fine theatre, but its seating and atmosphere can feel restrictive for fiddle and ceilidh inflected evenings. There was toe tapping, certainly, but the venue restricts the physical release this music always invites.

Even so, the quality of the playing was never in doubt. The concert ended strongly with a wonderful String Sisters tune, followed by a beautiful encore of Josefin’s Waltz, dedicated to all the fiddle players in the audience. It was a fitting close to an evening that celebrated not only two exceptional musicians, but the wider community of players, teachers, listeners and tradition bearers behind them.

On a good night for Norway, with Erling Haaland having just fired them into the last 16 of the World Cup, Annbjørg Lien gave her country another reason to cheer. But this was also very much Shetland’s night, full of music, art, fun and the deep pull of home.

One night only

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 30th June 2026

North West End UK Rating: