Our Gilded Veins

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has long been known for promoting British contemporary music. After two albums devoted exclusively to Thomas Wilson, the orchestra is now turning its attention to other leading composers on the contemporary scene. The programme, devised by conductor Rory Macdonald, contains works that explore themes such as loss, love and life: Our Gilded Veins by Jay Capperauld takes centre stage, alongside Within Her Arms, Anna Clyne's "fragile elegy" (The New Yorker), James MacMillan's legendary The Death of Oscar and the commemorative piece For Zoe, Martin Suckling's Meditation (after Donne) - featuring church bells from across Scotland - and Peter Maxwell Davies' Farewell to Stromness (in an arrangement for strings by Rosemary Furniss), which perhaps contains the composer's most well-known melody.