The Herald

Camerata Salzburg/Barbara Bonney, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

2/5 OH dear. What sleepy, comfortable, perhaps complacent music- making last night from the Austrian chamber orchestra, Camerata Salzburg. It's not that their playing of music by Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms was bad - though the first violins in this outfit, staffed with young personnel, were a far from homogeneous section, and conductor David Stern failed hopelessly in Mozart's Prague Symphony to balance the woodwind ensemble, whose chocolatey-toned bassoons burbled dominantly over the group.

Books of Silence, the Tramway, Glasgow

3/5 The most obvious musical response to a group of poems would seem to be to set it as a song cycle. Not, however, for Theatre Cryptic and director Cathie Boyd whose visionary innovation can only be admired. Taking seven poems by Lithuanian writer Oscar Milosz as his starting point, composer Andris Dzenitis has worked on a far grander scale, creating a chamber opera for the seven-strong Latvian Radio Chamber Singers. Add to this seven players from the Paragon Ensemble, video projection, ligh...

Theatre Othello, Riverside Studios, London

4/5 OTHELLO is one of those plays that, like the long-awaited bus, only seem to come in pairs. Earlier this year Greg Doran's RSC Othello brought us the fine, underestimated South African actor, Sello Maake ka-Ncube whose Europeanised veneer collapsed even as the pace of his mental collapse quickened. By the end, there was no doubting his African origins. It was a subtle but telling point about colonialism and vocal imitation.

St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

2/5 Rachmaninov's Second Symphony is a big work which needs a big performance, but - except by the clock - this one was not it. Lasting somewhat longer than the conventional 50 minutes, it showed that, by Russian standards, the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra is not to be confused with the St Petersburg Philharmonic. The sounds it produced were rather raucous, laborious, dense-toned. Rachmaninov's lush melodies, on this occasion, were never made to seem like expensive deep-piled carpets bein...

Theatre Riddance, Tramway, Glasgow

3/5 While the little boy upstairs cries, all Hoover salesman Kenny wants to do is clean up the mess of the past and keep things nice. But Clare's dreams are getting clearer by the day, and when Frank bursts in from home after 20 years to break their vow of silence, it's as if all lost boys have come calling at once.

Latest Outburst From Prince of Wails Won't Win Him Friends

DURING his protracted apprenticeship for the day he finally ascends the throne, we have all grown used to the Prince of Wales's strongly-held views, particularly on agriculture and the environment, architecture, education and alternative medicine. Two years ago, Charles was exposed by the Daily Mail as a serial letter writer to government ministers, firing off a missive every other week, on average, complaining about everything from the dangers of political correctness to the plight of countr...

A Teenager's Right to Make Moral Choices

THE only thing that makes the abortion debate more complicated is its tendency to collide with real-life. When Melissa Smith decided in April this year to have an abortion, with the advice of a school counsellor but without the knowledge of her mother, Maureen, it sparked uproar. By the time Maureen found out about her daughter's decision and Melissa, after discussion, had decided to keep the baby after all, she had taken an abortion pill which may well already have caused irreparable brain d...

Barlinnie Would Have Been Better

I READ with interest your report on the disqualification of Berger & Co (November 17). My company fell foul of this company in September 2000. My staff, without my knowledge, duly paid (pounds) 295 on its spurious demand notice. Not satisfied, Berger & Co came back two years later for another (pounds) 395. This time I was informed. I telephoned Berger and in my best Clydebank shipyard accent advised it in no uncertain terms where to put its second demand notice and also to repay me for its fi...

Bill Makes Breast Best; Law Will Save Mothers and Babies From Public Snubs

No right-thinking person would agree to eat their lunch in a public toilet. It is unreasonable, not to mention unhygienic, to expect the smallest members of our society to do so. Yet there are still bars, restaurants and shopping centres in Scotland where breastfeeding mothers are being ordered to button up and excuse themselves. Alternatively, they could go into purdah until their babies are weaned, another unreasonable expectation in a society where women are nearly as active outside the ho...

Deliberate Reduction of Hydro Power Potential

AS A general rule, if it's green it's gibberish, and what is now being done in the hydro-electricity generating industry is no exception; it may, indeed, be the attainment of new heights of gibberosity. In order to qualify for classification as a source of "renewable" energy and to gain access to the massive amounts of public money available as subsidies under the Renewable Obligation (Scotland) Order, hydro-electricity generating stations must not exceed 20 megawatts in net output. There is ...

Overdoing It

Europe and the Discontent with Us Policies

THE Flat Earth Society apart, few now doubt that Iraq is about oil. Less widely discussed is that Iraq was the first state to denominate its oil price in euros instead of dollars (in 2000). This was even more significant to America, because it challenged the dollar as the world's sole reserve currency. Back in 1974, all Opec members agreed to price their entire output in US dollars - at that time it was in their financial interests to do so. Today there is much discontent with American foreig...

Far Too Lenient

Kennedy's Campaign

YOUR report (November 18) claiming that Charles Kennedy will "avoid Scotland in general election TV campaign" is misinformed and plain wrong. At the 2005 general election, Charles will front the daily morning press conference from London, and he will also undertake the full round of major Scottish media bids. So it is logical that those programmes which move around the country during the election - eg, Question Time - should come from a different location. In addition to his media commitments...

Naked Sexism

Carolyn Leckie, MSP, is absolutely right to condemn the naked sexism of the press (November 17). Even publication of letters to The Herald's editor reflects sexism. Why are so few letters from women printed? The SSP's practice of collective democracy is beyond so many journalists' understanding that they resort to sensationalism and character assassination. Women journalists are just as guilty of this. Jackie Kemp fails to grasp collective democracy, dismissing Tommy Sheridan's reasons for re...

Overcoming Their Differences Blair and Chirac Are United by More Than Divides Them

A cartoon this week depicts a tremulous Jacques Chirac recoiling from the door of No 10 where the prime ministerial doorknocker is transformed into a growling dog. The message is clear: for American president's poodle, read British bulldog. Yesterday the British prime minister and French president attempted to put their differences behind them. The ostensible reason for the smiling and handshaking was the centenary of the entente cordiale which marked the end of colonial rivalry between Brita...

Over-Promotion

Putting Voters at the Heart of Political Process

IN seeking causes for the alleged dullness of our MSPs, Jackie Kemp makes the all too common mistake of assuming that all systems of proportional representation (PR) are the same (November 17). They are not. Unfortunately, we elect our MSPs by a system of PR that is intended to give PR only of registered political parties. The Additional Member System (AMS) does, indeed, put the power firmly in the hands of the party apparatchiks. The elected members are more accountable to their parties than...

Stop Windfarms Until We Have an Energy Policy

Under public notices in your issue of November 10 was a proposed development by Airtricity for a 173-turbine windfarm in the upper Clyde Valley around Abington, Crawford and Elvanfoot, and beside the main tourist road/rail gateway into Scotland. This would be the largest in Europe, even superseding the one under construction in South Lanarkshire at Forth/Carluke. Your edition of June 21 carried a report on the "biggest windfarm in the world" currently under consideration for Morvern, Ardnamur...

Birthdays