The red curtain goes up and we’re transported...

Fiona and the chief are glad they trekked out of the semi-wilds to attend a concert that reminds them of the power of music

Music is on the menu this week. It is a concert to improve the mind. Whisper it softly, but the chief and I are not great culture vultures. We would like to be – and when we are in the city we try. Yet, from where we live, it is a distance to get anywhere.

And, after all the business of work, house, garden and dogs, there isn’t always the energy.

It has to be said that living in the semi-wilds means it can take an effort to get us out at night.

Especially when it is a wet and windy Sunday. And so we um and aah about this classical music evening. To go or not. Thank goodness we decide to get in the car…

There is the harmony of Delius and the romance of Schubert.

There is the astonishing talent of a young musician who bounds on stage to create magic with metal.

Davur Juul Magnussen was born north-west of the Shetlands. He grew up in the Faroe Islands but now lives in Scotland where he works as principal trombonist with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Magnussen is slight and boyish-looking but, boy, can he make that golden thing sing.

In days gone by, of course, the trombone was one of the things guaranteed to get a party going.

Think big band. Think swing and jazz. Think of Tommy Dorsey. Of Glenn Miller and of the Louis Armstrong band.

Yet, as the last century came to an end, this upbeat instrument rather fell out of favour. Perhaps it was too expensive to buy. Maybe it was too heavy to use.

Now, though, it is making a comeback – helped in part by talent like Magnussen – and also thanks to a plastic version of the instrument.

Compared to its brass counterpart, the p Bone, as it’s called, is inexpensive. It is lightweight. It comes in different colours and is proving a hit.

Then there is the piano. Which is played at a wedding we attend this week.

A MacGregor is marrying a Turnbull. The Highlands meets the Borderlands. Just as it did when I married the chief. (I tell the lovely bride I must give her some tips on how to cope…).

This time the tune in the church is Farewell to Stromness. Find it on the internet. It is hauntingly beautiful and you will not be able to stop listening to it. Slow and lilting, this poignant piece

It is hauntingly beautiful and you will not be able to stop listening to it.

was composed by the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, a musician who made the Orkneys his home.

We try it with the Mac Naughties. Ears cock. They stop shuffling round and lie down and listen.

For research shows classical music can have a calming effect on dogs.

Indeed, a study indicates that our canine friends bark less and their stress levels can decrease when listening to something soothing. A bit of Bach. A hint of Handel. A moment of Mozart. It is probably something we could all do with a tad more of…

Sadly, there were no seats available for the MacNaughties at the concert.