A piano concert organised by Aberfeldy and District Rotary Club has raised £2411 for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA).
The concert was conceived by and performed at Aberfeldy Town Hall by Roger Wilson, a local Aberfeldy valley musician, who has previously given charity concerts in Fortingall and at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Roger said: “I was concerned that classical music might be thought elitist, so I put together a programme from
the best music over 300 years, giving it a light-hearted feel, introducing the composers to the audience with a few words about them.”
The ‘musical chat’ was performed cabaret style with the grand piano set among tables and chairs, the audience enjoying a glass of wine and the repartee.
The scene was set by a comedy of Wilson’s performance of Bach’s first Prelude played back to front. It got more serious after that but not so much that the audience were ever bored.
As the musical history unfolded, with anecdotal tales of the composers, they enjoyed Beethoven’s Pathetique, Debussy’s ‘Girl with the Flaxen Hair’ and, to end the first half, Wilson’s own arrangement of three of Burt Bacharach’s best loved songs, ‘Alfie’, ‘Make it Easy on Yourself’ and ‘This Guy’s in Love with You’.
The tribute was all the more poignant since Burt had sadly died only a few weeks earlier.
In the interval, Claire Taylor from the SCAA gave a moving account of their work in saving lives, particularly pertinent in this area of rural Scotland.
As the concert title announced, the second half took the musical story backwards with Wilson playing ‘Old Fun City’, a musical interlude from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an Academy Award winner for Bacharach.
Winding back the years were George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, Chopin and Mozart.
The finale was a Bach tour de force. His Toccata and Fugue in D minor is well known on the organ, but Wilson gave it everything and it sounded no less fantastic for being on the piano rather than the organ.
Club president Peter Howell said: “Aberfeldy Rotary are delighted that the concert raised over £2400 for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance.
“We are very grateful to everyone who came to the concert and for their generous donations.”
