Two months ago I reeled out of a concert that had been an amalgam of rock and traditional music, mixed in with large-scale classical forces.

It was one of the most exciting evenings I’ve spent in the concert hall.

On Saturday it happened all over again, this time with traditional music and classical resources, marvellous entertainment, outrageous yarn-

spinning and hilarious anecdotes. Phil Cunningham had featured in the October show. On Saturday, along with Aly Bain, and the RSNO in accompaniment, he was central to the annual St Andrew’s show that has become a fixture.

The range of music was astonishing. Cunningham’s classics, from Sarah’s Song to his great anthem Cathcart, were pillars of the programme.

Aly Bain, in an extraordinary mini-recital within the concert, went back in time to the earliest music from his native Shetland. And what music, jangling eerily like Hardanger fiddle tunes: rough-hewn, earthy sounds recreating the wedding and new-year music of ancient times, evoking trolls and other phenomena. Then, via a lullaby, he catapulted into the Papa Stour Sword Dance, handing over the music to the RSNO strings, which sharpened the edge of the massive, jaggy dance.

There were also the youngsters, driving traditional music into the present century, fabulous musicians whose names were unfamiliar to me, playing their music as though their

lives depended on it. And there was Julie Fowlis, about to give birth but rattling through a sparkling Gaelic set without mishap; Duncan Chisholm playing the sweetest fiddle; the Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band in flawless unanimity; and conductor John Logan welding the RSNO and the myriad traditional musicians into a single force. A memorable night.

Star rating: *****