The sun shone down on a beautiful spring day in Strathpeffer with not a sign of ash in the sky, where the idle observer could view snapshots of life’s rich tapestry.  The enthusiastic optimist striding up the hill to SP’s unique golf course, and the mud splattered realist trudging down 3 hours later.  The nervous wide-eyed couple you saw standing guiltily outside the chocolate shop, glancing alternately between the goods on offer and their waist lines; and the smiling, endorphin fuelled family satisfactorily shuffling out of the said establishment.

That evening saw a number of extra visitors to the village, grasping what looked like a very expensive pick and mix, drifting into the pavilion.  The attraction was  Dingwall Choral Society’s Spring Concert.  The ambitious programme was Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Requiem.  As this was my first venture to a DC concert I felt a thrill of anticipation touched with a little anxiety.  The music is magnificent - would the performance be up to it?  The youthfulness of the choir and the sinfonia was encouraging and a credit to the Highland Council’s enlightened and forward thinking support for music in schools but could they cope with the demands of these superb works?  (Before someone criticises my eyesight and points out that that DC has some more mature performers, may I explain that I am more used to watching the RSNO and chorus.  In their case the heavenliness of the music can be attributed to the average choir members closeness to God, in the sense that they might be meeting up with him in the next few days.)

The Pavilion was a splendid space for the concert. The high arched buttresses engendering a feeling of being in an upturned boat or Jonah-like in a whale was spoiled only by the lovely evening light streaming through the glass canopy. The venue was well filled with youngsters of all ages and an air of expectancy settled on the audience as the performers trooped in.

But what of the performance?  Well my fears were ungrounded.  From the start the enthusiasm and verve of the choir was apparent and maintained throughout the arduous programme.  That the choir were enjoying themselves was obvious and that enjoyment communicated itself to the audience.   Whether a Requiem should have been so much fun is questionable but who but a pedant would carp about that. The Sinfonia, despite the youth of the majority of its members,  provided a solid support to the choir with the balance between the orchestra , the choir and the soloists being just right and a credit to the Musical Director, Norman Bolton.

The soloists were uniformly excellent with the baritone Michel de Souza particularly impressive. The tenor Warren Gillespie and the soprano Sung Eun Seo lacked a little in volume but not in quality; they will surely develop with maturity. Maria Brown, the contralto, provided an appropriate gravitas to the proceedings with her fine full voice. Some of the ensemble singing was particularly good with again an even balance being maintained.

I conclude with an appeal that with the money saving measures promised by whichever amalgam of politicians eventually govern, let us not get too carried away and sacrifice the small sums necessary to support music in the region on the altar of austerity and thus lose the sort of experience that last Saturday’s Concert provided. We owe it to our young people – we owe it to ourselves to protect the experiences that active participation in music provides.