Here's the tree at the back of my building looking lovely in its Autumn colours.  Apart from the pleasure given to us all by the wonderful display of colourful foliage throughout the city my highlight of recent weeks has to be participation as a member of the Cheyne Gang choir in the concert we gave together with the Warblers in Stockbridge Parish Church.   

You don't have to be a singer to be in one of these choirs because they are all about helping people with lung problems to control breathlessness and have some fun.  For someone who was classified as a groaner and encouraged not to sing at primary school it's just the ticket.  I did have a music teacher at secondary school who took an inclusive view though. I sang in her treble boys choir at the Assembly Rooms in some sort of competition way back in the distant past.

Otherwise, leaving church services aside, my singing in public has been in the course of dramatic performance.  Only when I played Bottom in Claire's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream could I claim that the quality of my tuneless singing was absolutely tailored to the part.  In other roles sadly it was not but mercifully was but briefly foisted on the audience.

Three friends had come to the gig and afterwards we had a drink in Clark's Bar in Dundas Street.  It's at least one decade if not two since I last had a drink there but I was delighted to find that it had not changed its character.  It's still a warm, friendly and convivial hostelry.

On the professional music front I very much enjoyed the RSNO's performance of Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony.  Since I first heard it live about 60 years ago it's been a favourite.  Pieces move in and out of my fantasy desert island disc list but it retains its place. I also enjoyed Bach's St Mathew  Passion from the SCO but was somewhat puzzled by the way the soloists were moved around.  You expect to see them either sitting front stage all the time or sitting at the side and moving in to sing but here they were placed at various points within the orchestra and moved about.  I daresay if I'd been following the libretto I might have understood. Their singing on the other hand, with one exception who seemed under par compared to previous occasions was lovely.  I particularly enjoyed a duet sung by the soprano and countertenor.

Then there was one of the SCO's  New Dimensions concerts which they describe as a contemporary music strand designed to explore genre-defying sound worlds, minimalist compositions, and modern classical premieres in an informal, relaxed format. There wasn't a premiere but otherwise the description is sound although the Usher Hall doesn't lend itself as well to informality as does their home, the Queen's Hall.  Anyway the composers on this occasion were Max Richter, Philip Glass and John Adams.  The latter two shone well enough but the jewel of the evening was Richter's version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen led the players and they were great.  You can listen to it (not played by the SCO) on Youtube and read what Richter says in The Guardian. 

There was wonderful music and most notably percussion from a small group of players in the pit of the Festival Theatre when Scottish Ballet performed a double bill, the revival of Emergence and the premiere of Entress.  I enjoyed both works and reviewers have lauded them.  Here as an example is a 5 star review of its performance in Glasgow.  The reviewer expresses her wish to see it again soon and she did because she accompanied me to the Edinburgh performance.

Scottish Ballet's creative energy was on show again, but this time on the cinema screen in These Violent Delights.  The film is a version of Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet is danced by Kayla-Maree Tarantolo who figured prominently in Entress.  It's a bold and wildly dreamlike experience which despite or perhaps because six different choreographers worked on different scenes takes the viewer on a fascinating almost surreal journey. Costumes, locations, performers all terrific.  There's a really interesting "the making of" video here.

There's a degree of violence in Irvine Welsh's writing and his language is not for the over sensitive.  Fortunately the crowd that filled Leith Theatre the other week to see a dramatised version of his novel Porno were more than up to the challenge and indeed revelled in its profanities.

The story is a sequel to Trainspotting in which Renton who has robbed his chums blind and shot the craw comes back to Edinburgh to make some sort of amends.  I'm nor sure that I've read the book but Esther who I bumped into there told me she'd read it four times and loves it.  

I thought the show was well done but I felt they hadn't quite made a play of the book.  I'd have liked fewer monologues addressed directly to the audience.  However I solidly support the project to bring Leith Theatre back to life and this afternoon performance as well as an evening of music with Welsh himself DJing was a fundraiser.  I didn't attend in the evening.

The last time I saw a play in there was 40 years ago when I saw Ricki Fulton in A Touch of Class, his version of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.  I wouldn't been surprised if that's the last time any play was performed there though music has featured from time to time.  I went to a musical event there a few years ago but it was painfully loud so I bailed out after half an hour or so.

A new dramatisation of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was on at The Lyceum this month.  I was a bit slow in getting my act together so by the time I got around to buying tickets the run was more or less sold out.  The seats I did get were B1 and B2 in the Upper Circle which were described on the website as having a very restricted view.  They did not lie.  However we could hear pretty well and with a bit of strategic leaning and twisting saw bits now and then.  

It did seem to be very good and we decided we'd like to actually see the show but the runs at The Citizens and at Pitlochry following the Lyceum run were fully sold out so no joy.

Shortly before I saw the show Dave and Liffey Carverhill were up in Edinburgh and I had dinner with them.  Liffey played Jean Brodie in the production that Fiona and I did in Kitwe.  It's a shame they had come a week or so later and could perhaps have seen the show hopefully avoiding B1 and B2 in the Upper Circle.   

Seats B2 (there's no B1), B3 and B4 in the Grand Circle from where I saw Tristan and Iseult with Claire and Phil have a much better view.  This was a brilliant show. To quote The Guardian, "  This heady mix of circus mayhem, cabaret sexiness, comedy antics and medieval tragedy is utterly irresistible."  It's elsewhere described as a 21st century masterpiece and it's a bold man who would disagree. Developed by Emma Rice for the Kneehigh Theatre Company 10 years ago it's on tour and will be off to New York shortly and then at various venues in England until April 2027. 

Connor also paid a flying visit but was here long enough for us to have a pleasant walk along Portobello prom under a lovely blue and sunny sky.