Programme Note by Jonathon Brown

The origins of tonight’s entertainment are simple :  in this, my first substantial exhibition in Edinburgh since leaving the city a decade ago, I wished to conjure some means of thanking the creative world in which I had had the luck to live and which had consisted most of all of the company of musicians, composers and performers alike.  An evening in which that company played and, what’s more, played as much as possible what they had written, became the starting point for a programme that now also includes music highlighting the French connection, the wayfaring theme, and even the reverse homage a composer can make to a visual artist  –  to say nothing of music wetter on the page than some of these canvases were when they set off from France.

I am very grateful and indeed touched by the willingness of the players tonight, some of whom have travelled from the south of France or Ireland to contribute raisins d’être to the gâteau, as well as to the infrastructure of the Hebrides Ensemble, which has meant that I have not repeated my organisational feat of putting on a piano recital without ordering the piano.

The company of art and drink and food has also been celebrated since we crawled from caves and it was a happy chance that brought to my attention the presence of an award-winning Scotsman making wine in France :  Alan Geddes of Château Mayragues, near the town of Gaillac, a Scot married to a French woman.  His generosity brings us an abundance of his most excellent, sun-drenched wine and reminds us that the sun never sets on the Scottish spirit.  Equally, to find Benoît, of “Made in France”, a Niçois married to a Scot and here now purveying the best of French produce in the capital, provided the irresistable partner to even the balance.

The cherry on the cake comes from Adam & Company, who have sponsored this evening’s champagne to launch the ship as well as the dram with which we may signal so many old alliances celebrated this evening.

Thank you all.