For many German composers of the 19th century, Scotland became a place of longing: Felix Mendelssohn found the starting point for his Scottish Symphony here in 1829 , and Max Bruch was inspired to create a fantasy by a Scottish folk song a good ten years after the composition of his first and best-known violin concerto. They were all fascinated by Scotland's legendary history, the sombre melancholy of the landscape - and by the peculiar green-overcast colors of nature. Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin, this year's Composer in Residence, is also a master of orchestral colour. With her piece Mythic , written in 2004 , she enters a gloomy world of sound – a mythical musical cave, so to speak.
The young Spanish violinist Carla Morrero has an extraordinary instrument at her disposal for her timbre research in Bruch's Violin Concerto: On loan from the Anne Sophie Mutter Foundation, she plays on a violin made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who succeeded in playing the famous violin in the 19th century Models of the Cremonese violin making school to copy perfectly.
