Fiddle player, singer and composer Isla Ratcliff has shared details of her new album The Scottish Four Seasons which will be released on Friday 14th November. Isla’s second album, The Scottish Four Seasons is a Scottish trad reimagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and marks the 300-year anniversary of the work’s original publication.
Featuring Isla on fiddle, accompanied by string ensemble and piano, this contemporary arrangement highlights the dance-like nature of Vivaldi’s music and also reflects on how Scotland’s seasons and climate have changed in the past 300 years. In arranging this piece of work, Isla adjusted aspects of Vivaldi’s original composition such as structure, time signature, harmony and instrumental texture (opting for a piano instead of a harpsichord) and also wrote her own melodies over Vivaldi’s original chord progressions.
Each track depicts an aspect of Scotland’s seasons and is accompanied by a poem written by Isla. There is also a bonus track at the end of the album, Four Seasons in One Day, a playful nod to how many people in Scotland affectionately refer to the vagaries of the Scottish climate.
Vivaldi’s original four violin concertos were composed for violin, string orchestra and harpsichord, and here they are reinterpreted by a stellar cast of Scottish traditional musicians: Isla Ratcliff (fiddle and composer), Kristan Harvey – fiddle (Blazin’ Fiddles, FARA), Megan Henderson – fiddle (Breabach), Lauren MacColl – viola (RANT, Heal & Harrow, Salthouse), Natalie Haas – cello (Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, Natalie & Brittany Haas), Charlie Stewart – double bass (Rebecca Hill & Charlie Stewart, Skreel), Iona Reid – piano (Beatha, Frank Reid Band). It was produced by producer, musician and broadcaster Anna Massie, recorded and mixed by Stuart Hamilton in Castlesound Studios, and mastered by Sam Proctor at Lismore Mastering.
Isla said:
I have always loved Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and I am very excited to release this Scottish folk reinterpretation of it. I have taken Vivaldi’s famous melodies and made them sound Scottish, resulting in an album of lots of different moods in which each track tells a story – from the plants waking up and the lambs playing in spring, to the frenzy of midges and the increasing heatwaves that we are experiencing in summer, to the joyful playing with fallen leaves and the stags’ rut in autumn, and lastly to Hogmanay cèilidhs and the diminishing snowfall that we are experiencing in winter. And of course it wouldn’t be The Scottish Four Seasons without a bonus track at the end, “Four Seasons in One Day”! I also really enjoyed writing poems to accompany each track, many of which are influenced by Scottish writers including Lady Nairne, Lady John Scott, Robert Burns, Nan Shepherd and Iain Crichton Smith.
From Edinburgh, Isla Ratcliff is a passionate and inventive fiddle player, singer and composer. Since releasing her debut album The Castalia in 2021, Isla has been receiving increasing attention for her fiery fiddle playing and her rich singing voice. She was a Semi-Finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2022 competition, and was nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year 2022 at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards. She has performed across Scotland, the UK and Europe, including at Celtic Connections, Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth FolkWeek, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Seall Festival of Small Halls, the BBC Proms, and festivals in France, Germany and Denmark.
Inspired by landscape, people and experiences, Isla aims to create music that excites, soothes and challenges the listener to think. Her work is underpinned by her interests in tradition, community, cultural politics, the environment, and music’s positive impact on our wellbeing.
The Scottish Four Seasons will be released on Friday 14th November on streaming sites and CD, with the single Autumn Leaves (Autumn 1) released on Friday 3rd October.
