Peter Donohoe

Rachmaninov: 6 Preludes: Op. 3 No. 2 and Op. 23 Nos 1-5

Tchaikovsky: Grand Sonata in G major, Op. 37

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Following the concert, I emailed the audience and I hope this gives a flavour of the recital

"What a start! What an inaugural recital to the Inverness Piano Recital series, given by Peter Donohoe on 1 October. I was thrilled with the whole evening: the refurbished Hall, with its excellent acoustic, was the perfect setting; the piano had been tuned earlier that day and stayed in tune, despite the severe tests exerted in the Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky; and the near capacity audience enjoyed a masterful, commanding display of such musicianship that the recital will live long in the memory.

At least that's what I thought - but I'd be delighted to hear your comments. In more detail, I think that the admissions procedure (no tickets, names scored off a list, payment in cash or by card) seemed to go smoothly enough with little queueing. I hope everyone got a reasonable seat; the acoustic in the Hall is so good that you should be able to hear well anywhere. Of course, what you couldn't hear was my introduction, because the microphone didn't seem to work. After the concert, I spoke to the Council guys and it transpired that there were two microphones, one of which worked and the other didn't. Which one did I get?

This didn't seem to concern Peter who gave fascinating insights into each of the works before he played them. In these introductory words, his passion for Russian music shone through as it did when he played the Rachmaninov Preludes, the Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata ("I think this is only the second performance of the Sonata in Scotland. And I gave the first, in Edinburgh!") and the Mussorgsky “Pictures at an Exhibition”, which was only orchestrated by Ravel after the composer's death.

Peter was happy to chat to the audience at the and to sign CDs for them. Later, he joined the "team" (Peter & Fran, Niall & Alison and I) for a glass of wine in my house, where he proved to be the genial and informative guest you would expect.

OK, so how do we follow that? The other concert in our series will be given by Steven Osborne on 4 February 2019. Steven played at the recital last January to mark the opening of the refurbished Hall and is a highly respected pianist. I'm looking forward immensely to hearing him.

Thank you for completing the Contact Details form, which is how I got your e-mail address. As I said in my introduction, my database "IPR audience" is held on my computer and, of course, I'll comply with the GDPR. I also intend to keep you advised of our other activities through our Facebook page (go to "Inverness Piano Recitals") and through the website. I am highly sceptical of the view that an audience of our age doesn't/can't/won't use a computer; I think that's just wrong. But if you have a problem with this (and if you get this message!), let me know and I'll see what can be done.

Thanks again for your support of this wonderful occasion."