Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 26 March 2013
IT IS just about three years to the day since Scotland’s first lady of the violin made her last trio tour performance at Eden Court, so it was too much of a […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 13 March 2013
IF THERE is one thing guaranteed to get my back up when going to a show that I do not know, it is to sit in my seat and open a nice glossy programme booklet to […]

OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 12 February 2013, and touring
A BILLBOARD on the stage, amid all the other jumble of a rummage through history, was a reminder that Scottish Opera is celebrating its […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 2 February 2013
MEMORY defeats me when it comes to recalling the last visit to Inverness by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra accompanied by their Chief Conductor.

THAT […]

Town House, Inverness, 21 November 2012
TRYING to put a finger on why there has been such an explosion of new arts ventures arriving on the Highland scene over the past few years is a near impossible […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 8 November 2012
AS THE ultimate art form, opera has a tradition of incorporating symbolism and disguised meanings into every new production as each director releases his […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 28 October 2012
THE STAGE of the Empire Theatre at Eden Court had sixteen outstanding musicians performing on it last Sunday evening.

FIFTEEN of them came from the Who’s […]

Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 4 October 2012, and touring
ONE of the great unanswered questions of life is why do human beings start to go downhill when they reach fifty (well, some of us did!), whereas Scottish […]

Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 21 September 2012
THE CITY of Glasgow has been presenting a choir for world acclaim since Queen Victoria was still warm, just, so it is maybe appropriate that the present incarnation, […]

Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 2 September 2012
WITH the continuing paucity of orchestral visits from the Central Belt, performances from our own Highland Chamber Orchestra are even more appreciated by music lovers […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 16 August 2012
IT IS ironic that in a summer when the weather has been little better than depressing, the day when the Scottish Chamber Orchestra decides to bring a ray of […]

Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 20 July 2012
MORE than a couple of decades ago, a critic whose name escapes me commented on the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that “there is no finer Mozart orchestra this side of […]

Queen’s Hall. Edinburgh, 7 June 2012
CIRCUMSTANCES dictated that I was not able to get to Strathpeffer on Friday evening for the only Highland performance of Savourna Stevenson’s new Concerto for Pedal Harp on […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 17 May 2012
LIFE is so much easier as an arts reviewer, rather than an arts critic.

IF ONE of those omniscient characters had been in the Empire Theatre at Eden Court […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 2 May 2012
THE 2011-12 Orchestral Season at Eden Court was brought to a thoroughly enjoyable climax on Wednesday with a visit by the admirable Scottish Chamber Orchestra […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 28 April 2012
FOR 138 years, ever since the first performance, the argument has raged over whether Verdi’s Requiem is too theatrical a work to fall within the genre of […]

Spa Pavilion, Strathpeffer, 29 March 2012
KIRKCALDY-based Opera Bohemia seem to have a thing about tragic love stories in which the heroine ends up dead.

Last year, in their debut production, it was La Boheme […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 30 March 2012
A LITRE of fuel to a Cornish pasty says that most of the audience for Friday’s BBC SSO concert had never heard three of the four items on the programme […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 17 March 2012
THE LAST time anything as zany as the Spaghetti Western Orchestra was seen at Eden Court was when the Italian mime artist Ennio Marchetto dressed himself in […]

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 21 March 2012 TELL ME! How is a guy meant to be able to get to sleep at night after being exposed to nearly three hours of the sort of songs that go round and round in the brain, and you can’t get them to go away! NOT THAT you necessarily want […]