Matheson Church

This little Church of Scotland in Innellan is where we were singing tonight, in the second of two concerts "Music for the Journey" with the Grazioso Quartet and Lynda Norris on piano/harpsichord. The church was the charge of the Reverend Dr George Matheson, the blind minister who wrote the hymn “Oh Love that wilt not let me go.” He wrote this hymn after he had been jilted by his fiancee when he became blind and wrote it in his study at the manse.

The building has a high roof, although the acoustics are somewhat dampened by a very thick pile carpet and the cushioning on the pews. This makes the experience of singing there less rewarding than in the likes of Holy Trinity, though it has to be said that the large audience compensated for that.

The concert, it has to be said, went extremely well, even though two of the alto section were missing because of illness, and the viola player had stepped in at short notice when the quartet was also struck by the plague. If you're interested in hearing the piece we ended the concert with, you can listen to it here.