Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 11 November 2011

IT’S HARD to build excitement in a show featuring dozens of different musicians coming on to do a turn each, otherwise known as the concert party format.

Even harder when the show falls on Armistice Day and proceedings begin with a minute’s silence in remembrance of the fallen, something which in Scotland ensures that not one person in the audience will be unaffected.

Musical Director Corrina Hewat (photo Lieve Boussauw)

So all praise to Musical Director Corrina Hewat for managing to maintain Friday night’s momentum from the first set, during which Rona Lightfoot put her pupils from the previous week in Ullapool, Robert Paterson and Angus Binnie, through their piping paces. Fèis Rois for the past quarter of a century has been all about keeping traditions alive, passing on our music from generation to generation, but what Friday’s concert made transparent was that it’s not just the music that the tradition bearers hand on to their young pupils, it’s the whole tangle of culture, humour and attitude.

What a privilege it was to see that in action, to spend an evening in the company of such lights of traditional life as Rona Lightfoot, Kenna Campbell, Aonghas Grant, John Carmichael and Fergie Macdonald, and see their delight and pride in their apprentices’ skill. Not a breath of X-Factor showbiz or pzazz in sight. Slightly astonishing, too, to report that both highlights of the first half, against all expectation, were not only recent compositions but were also played on the accordion.

First was sparky Amy Henderson’s take on AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, long added to the piping canon by Gordon Duncan and now being appropriated by the accordion fraternity. Second was Fergie Macdonald’s heartbreaking lament for the fallen of Afghanistan, composed in one sitting after watching footage from Brize Norton.

The second half featured a selection of graduates of Fèis Rois, including five from the first ever Fèis, then all fiddlers, but with one subsequent defector to harp (cheers from the Musical Director). They took it in turns to introduce the sets, liberally sprinkled with the musical tributes Fèis Rois regularly commissions to its progenitors and notable figures, most notably and perhaps most deeply felt being two typically lovely arrangements – Blair Douglas’ ‘Waltz for Kate Martin’ and Valerie Bryans’  ‘Rita Hunter of Aultbea’.

Another moment to treasure was the simplicity of a slow air played on eight fiddles with such delicacy and musical skill it could have transferred seamlessly to a concert hall anywhere in the world. But the moments flowed thick and fast, ending on an exuberantly modern note as Fèis Rois turns to face another quarter of a century doing what it does so well, keeping the flame alive and using it to ignite creativity and imagination.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

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