Thank you to everyone who sent me a nice message after last night’s streaming of the latest concert in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra‘s digital series – on this occasion, a programme curated by their principal cellist Philip Higham and presenting two piano quartets by Mozart and Fauré. Once again I had the impression that everyone […]

It’s now a whole year since concerts started being cancelled in anticipation of the pandemic. I remember very well that I had been to a birthday coffee party where the extended family sat around a big circular glass-topped table while our reflections ate scones and drank coffee in mirror image. I got home and there […]

After a long winter in the deep freeze (in more ways than one) – at last! – a concert to tell you about. It won’t be performed in front of a live audience – that long-awaited moment is probably still months away-  but it will be broadcast on YouTube and Facebook on March 11. I’ll […]

This week we watched Amy Berg’s 2015 documentary about Janis Joplin, ‘Little Girl Blue‘, which tells Janis’s story with the help of letters she wrote to her family while on tour. It’s an absorbing watch, full of great footage, excellent interviews with her family, friends and bandmates, and touching insights into Janis’s evolution from spiky […]

I keep coming across articles about the importance of revising our approach to international travel. For the sake of the environment as well as public health, we’re told, we should be working towards the possibility of doing everything in the places where we live. City planners and architects should be thinking how to provide us […]