NAPOLEON gets his comeuppance noisily in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall next Sunday night (May 17), but it's all in a good cause. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is the climax to the first half of the Gala Scottish Prom being held in aid of the cancer support charity, Tak Tent.
Tak Tent is, of course, good classical Scots for pay heed to or take cognisance of something. It will be a familiar phrase to theatre-goers as part of the title of James Kemp's adaptation of Moliere's L'ecole des femmes, Let Wives Tak Tent.
When Dr Kenneth Calman - now the Government's chief medical officer of health for England and Wales, but then oncologist at Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital - founded the charity in 1981 he no doubt had relatives in general and not simply wives in his sights. Carol Horne, the charity's manager, explains the background. ''He was dealing with patients but realised that patients and carers wanted to share experiences and pose questions that medical staff couldn't answer.''
Initially, small groups of patients and relatives met informally at his home and then in other premises.
The crux of Tak Tent is still small self-help groups. There are now 17 of them, ranging from Fort William in the north to Kirkcudbright in the south, and from Clackmannan and Falkirk in the east to Rothesay, Campbeltown, and Tighnabruiach in the west. The majority, however, are in the Glasgow area.
Dr Calman keeps his connection with the charity through his honorary presidency, while his wife is a vice-chairman.
The Tak Tent groups meet once a month or so very informally to share experiences and learn how others cope. Sometimes there are speakers, perhaps talking about an aspect of cancer research, or something practical like aromatherapy. Very occasionally there is a purely social meeting. Tak Tent's part in all this is to give information and backing, sometimes helping with transport or a little fund-raising to enable people go on holiday. But basically it does not so much provide direct help as help people to provide for themselves.
Tak Tent has no public funding so must rely on charitable donations or charitable trusts. Hence next Sunday's concert, the brainchild of chairman Jeanette Mason. The forces enlisted are impressive. They include the National Symphony Orchestra of Scotland (not to be confused with the RSNO but a freelance organisation established in 1993 by John Reid, its leader); the City of Glasgow Chorus; the Dunoon and Argyll Pipe Band; and soloists Felicity Hammond and Peter Alexander Wilson. Iain Sutherland conducts.
The ebullient Mr Sutherland is just back from Munich where he was at the rostrum in one of six German concerts in his diary to celebrate the Gershwin centenary year. There is no Gershwin on the Glasgow bill - but other goodies will tempt the Sunday night audience. The first half ranges from Dvorak's Carnival Overture and Handel's Zadok the Priest to popular arias from Mozart and Puccini, and of course the Tchaikovsky warhorse. ''You can't get too many pyrotechnic effects inside the concert hall,'' Sutherland points out. ''The stunning effects will be choral.''
The 200-strong chorus will be singing the great Russian hymns and czarist national anthem interwoven in the music. Moreover, they will be singing them in Russian. They will not, however, be singing The Marseillaise, which also obtrudes ironically in the piece.
''It is,'' Sutherland points out, ''very difficult to top the 1812. It's as over the top as you can get!'' The solution is a second half of Scottish music - ranging from Ae Fond Kiss and other favourite Scottish songs to the grand finale, based on Flower of Scotland and engaging all the assorted musical forces on the stage. Look out Tchaikovsky.
n Tickets - from #7.50 to #21 - are available from the Ticket Centre, Candleriggs, Glasgow (0141 287 5511) or at the Royal Concert Hall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article