Sunday 1 October 2000

The concert in Crieff on Wednesday was great fun, but by the middle of the afternoon I’d become completely dispirited, as we were playing in the Hydro’s drawing room, where about half the wall area is covered by floor to ceiling curtains.  It’s about as unflattering an acoustic for old instruments as you can imagine.  Still, once we got to the Scots repertoire it all came alive a bit – I suppose the lesson learned is that if you’re in a dead acoustic, play louder – and the concert itself was terrific.  They want us back to do something bigger next year, which is always a good sign.

Rod Cameron (legendary flute maker) was there, and just happened to have a couple of digital recorders and some very classy B&K mikes about his person, so he made an ‘official bootleg’, and is going to send me a CD sometime.  Alison had brought beer and crisps for the bus on the way home – by far the best way to wind down after a gig.

Ninian saw a truck on his way there bearing the legend ‘George Moffat & Co’ – I wonder if we can track it down and be photographed in front of it, as part of the continuing quest to have Georg Muffat recognised as Scottish …

I spent Thursday and Friday in the studio, producing sessions for Mr McFall’s Chamber: a whole record of South American repertoire, with a wonderful Chilean singer called Valentina Martinez.  It sounds like it should have been a culture shock after William McGibbon and Muffat, but it wasn’t – the ethos and structure of the music is remarkably similar, just inhabited by a different spirit.