World premiere

After a morning at church and an afternoon looking at more bathroom furniture I attended a concert this evening at St Michael’s Parish Church on Slateford Road. The extra shows the lovely interior.

One of my friends from school was the co-instigator of the event. He, Brian Bannatyne-Scott, is a bass opera singer and along with others was keen to get back to performing after a long absence. With Beth Taylor (a Scottish born mezzo soprano) and Michal Gajzler a Polish pianist, they put on a concert at the church, which has a series of free concerts on this week.

There was a Schubert and Mahler (Gustav and Alma) and Respighi, Schumann and FG Scott. I am not a music critic and some of these composers are not my go to ones. But to my mind the performances were superb.

The evening was rounded off with the world premiere of Tom Cunningham’s setting to music of the poems by Alexander McCall Smith about Edinburgh. The music complemented the observance and humour of the poems and the piece overall was evocative and at times emotional.

I had to get back home so left quickly and did not have time to catch up but hope to do so before long.

A great evening.