The Auld Alliance

Matthew McAllister played a programme of French and Scottish music in a lunchtime concert in the Great Hall of Hexham Abbey today as part of the Hexham Abbey Festival 2017. What brilliant, sensitive playing. His introductions and anecdotes were excellent too. (Not a great fan of the pianoforte, it has to be said!!)

He kindly posed for me after the concert.

As you know, I have recently been to a number of folk concerts and heard wonderful playing. It was a shock to the system to hear an unamplified guitar. At times the sound was almost inaudible and you had to listen carefully. All the better for that in the pieces he chose. (I was a bit irritated with the lady to my right who could not help coughing and sneezing, but who rustled her programme all the way through. At one point - at one of the quietest moments in his playing - she pulled out a plastic pill bottle, cracked it open, shook out a tablet and then closed it with a snap. No wonder he kept his eyes closed to concentrate!)

Julie is coming soon and we are going out to eat before tonight's concert by Voices of Hope. Tomorrow we go to Liverpool for the weekend.

Oh yes, this morning I had my hair cut and Mum was let loose on Hexham to do a bit of shopping. All good.