Review of fundraising concert With Love To Ukraine at Eden Court
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Eden Court theatre stood as one for the Ukrainian national anthem on Wednesday at the end of a night packed with music and poetry from Ukraine and the Highlands.
In the best traditions of a Highland ceilidh, the evening had run a little over time.
But the audience – which included Ukrainians based in the North – had been treated to top drawer entertainment interspersed with moving video messages from Ukrainians either still in their home country or based in the Highlands, all talking about their experience, some in short interviews with Matthew Zajac, who had organised the night and was its host.
The concert opened with Perthshire’s Ross Ainslie on bagpipes instantly creating a sense of melancholy playing Lament For Ukraine – and later Ross and Julie Fowlis were both playing the bagpipes, this time a moving force to end the main part of the concert.
In between was a programme packed with highlights, every item showcased Scottish, Gaelic and Ukrainian culture, shining a spotlight on individual talents and songs, music and poetry that engaged your emotions, sometimes leaving you with a sense of joy or sadness – or made you laugh.
Three Ukrainian professional female singers offered contrasting voices and genres, spaced throughout the concert.
First, the classical voice of Nataliya Gorban singing traditional Ukrainian songs gave a glimpse into another world, with the help of song titles and an English translation of all lyrics up on a backdrop behind the stage. It was a thoughtful touch to help shine a light on the meaning of the songs, while you could enjoy Nataliya’s rich, operatic voice as Alla Tkachenko added sensitive accompaniment on the piano.
What Do I Need My Black Eyebrows For, seemed to express loss, one of the lines revealing: “My heart is withering in sadness like a bird in a cage”.
Fiddle Play In The Street seemed to be a more light-hearted song about a daughter trying to escape from her home to see the blue eyes of the boy she loved, while her mother stopped her!
The Song Of Natalka Poltavka came from a Ukrainian opera called Natalka Poltavka, Nataliya told us.
“I’m a plain Jane, a simple girl … But all my love is for Petro, I love him with all my soul, he is the only one for me.”
Another love song shared regret, called I Know I Have A Sin – the words confessed: “I let the boy kiss my blushing face…” before a chorus that saw the Ukrainian members of the audience start to clap along, the rest of us joining in, as the girl in the song listed the names of many boys she would fall in love with – but not “if I were lucky enough to catch Vasil!”! It ended with an impressive high note from Nataliya.
Inverness Gaelic Choir offered the contrast of fast, staccato, dancing mouth music with the beautiful version of Ukraine’s Sacred Memory translated into Gaelic.
Having come second in the world poetry slam held in Paris recently, Inverness-based Hamish MacDonald shared the word-fluency and performance skills that earned him that achievement in three poems that were fast, furious and fun.
This Poem Is A Fake at one point likened the poem to “a £10 million forgery in a Sotheby’s auction”.
Fish Van was packed with different fish species and a punter pulverised and traumatised. No wonder it started with the perfect warning about “scenes of strong violence – and fish!”. And Hamish’s set ended with Ma Bit, one of his earlier and strongest poems, pointing out the dangers of defending your own bit of garden, land, at all costs.
Highland-based trauma consultant and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Andy Kent then spoke to the audience about volunteering in Ukraine with a description of the aid one of the night’s four-supported charities, UK-MED, was providing – with the help of medical volunteers, some from the Highlands and Raigmore Hospital.
Work included setting up clinics to support the population and starting advanced First Aid training for people there being coordinated by Dr Claire Vincent, from Raigmore. Also out there had been North pharmacist Liam Callaghan. Part of the charity’s role is to procure surgical equipment and supplies, and to make an initial assessment of the small town hospital that had been subjected to relentless shelling - effectively destroyed by the Russians – which was needed to treat war casualties but also the normal day-to-day medical needs of the community it served.
In the next video, we saw two volunteers taking to the train and a plane to get to Ukraine to help. Professor Angus Watson showed UK-MED setting up and supporting a new field hospital funded by the UK Government to offer services beside the hospital destroyed by the Russians. We were told Dr Vincent and Liam Callaghan were now home and in the audience alongside us.
At the end of the UK-MED video, Professor Angus Watson said: “It is a privilege working with UK-MED in Ukraine and I’m confident we have made a long-lasting difference to patients and people there.”
In among all the entertainment of the evening, both Dr Andy Kent’s short talk and the video from Ukraine brought home how important our efforts to support medical services in Ukraine are – and how proud we should be of Scottish and local medical staff who volunteer to go and help there.
In the second half, Hamish Napier and Ross Ainslie on small pipes and wooden flute in C, performed a short lively set that really connected with the audience, as Hamish set the scene for Neighbours’ Tunes, conjuring up a time when he and Ross had been neighbours in Glasgow he introduced a waltz by Phil Cunningham, The Youngest Ancient Mariner, followed by a lively jig, before a second set including The Old Ways and then The Tree Of Luck, a tune about the cherry tree from Hamish’s The Woods album.
Singer songwriter Toma Butko’s style has been described as indie-punk and she was the second Ukrainian singer to share her music, this time a unique and intimate style with guitar, first song I Am Not Afraid bold with some inspiring words “So – even once – if I become almost dead, I’ll be strong not to forget”.
In contrast, Temporary Jazz, delved into the risky territory of relationship and just set the scene for more – but there were just two songs and it would be lovely to hear more of Toma’s music.
Blairgowrie poet Jim Mackintosh – whose event for Ukraine at Perth Concert Hall in April helped inspire Matthew Zajac, a guest at that event – to create the Eden Court event, created two moving moments. His own poem The Boy With The Flowers was based on a tragic moment from the Ukraine War. Jim then read Scottish poet Norman MacCaig’s The White Bird.
He explained the idea to read it was … “Inspired by a bonny tune of the same title!”
The writer of that tune (which appears on his album Sandwood), Duncan Chisholm then played it on the fiddle with Hamish Napier accompanying on keyboard, as Jim read the poem with its resonant words for such a night as it begins: “The light comes back/ The light always comes back …”
The third Ukrainian voice of the concert brought us the electric presence of Elzara Batalova introduced as “one of the greatest singing stars of Ukraine …”
A group of Highland musicians had been put together to support Elzara – Robin Abbot, Derek Urquhart, Andy Thorburn, Jonny Hardie, Aidan O’Rourke and later Ross Ainslie. Wearing a gold dress and wrapping herself in a Ukrainian flag Matthew Zajac brought out, Elzara opened with Oi, U Vishnevomu Sadu, Pasadena saw Elzara getting the crowd to clap along, but her most heartfelt performance came with Guzel Kirim – a Crimean and Tatar song – “We are all people who want freedom,” Elzara said, introducing it, the lyrics expressing homesickness, “I long to see my homeland, oh beautiful Crimea”.
Highland-based musicians – Duncan Chisholm, Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley Hamish Napier, Derek Urquhart, Robin Abbot and Andy Thorburn, Jonny Hardie, Ross Ainslie and Aidan O’Rourke – powered the night.
Before the interval, Duncan Chisholm, Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley, Hamish Napier and Ross Ainslie lined up to perform Cearcall Mun Ghealaich, translated into Gaelic from Catriona Montgomery’s poem Circle Round The Moon which features on Julie’s alterum album.
They returned to Runrig’s Rory and Calum Macdonald – Julie Fowlis and the musicians having played their own version of Hearts Of Olden Glory to close the first half. The Macdonalds' Runrig song Fuaim a Bhlair (The Sound Of War) was their final song of the night – though Julie Fowlis added: “Ultimately a song of peace …” – before Nataliya was to return to close the evening with the Ukrainian national anthem.
Earlier, writer James Robertson had read out one of his 365 stories, this one specially written for the occasion and with music by Aidan O’Rourke with Jonny Hardie, James's comment perhaps summing up the warmth and emotion the night achieved: “Tonight, is Scotland hand in hand with Ukraine.”
The amount of organisation to get an event like this together is mind-boggling – and there is nothing but praise for producers Matthew Zajac and Alan 'Dinner' Mackinnon for the artistic and technical feats of pulling this off so spectacularly – with the good will, artistry and generosity of the artistes and staff at Eden Court, those contributing to all the video pieces too and those involved in getting many Ukrainians based across the Highlands along to enjoy the show too. Each item on the bill had been planned and finessed and performed exquisitely to create a magical night that will appear high on any 'gig of the year' list. This Highland tribute also succeeded in reminding anyone there how important it is to support the Ukrainians in their quest for freedom and peace.
The night was filmed and organisers hope that it will be available to stream soon on YouTube with a discretionary donation button so you can watch it again or see the night for the first time and support the four charities the night was raising funds for: UK-MED, AUGB-Edinburgh, Highlands For Ukraine and the Black Isle Refugee Support Network.
