St Mary’s Summer Concert
Queen’s Hall Edinburgh 23/6/25
St Mary’s Music School students
There was a palpable sense of excitement around the Queen’s Hall on Monday evening, and it was not entirely generated by over-enthusiastic schoolchildren. This has become something of an event in Edinburgh musical life recently, as a showcase for Scotland’s pre-eminent specialist school, St Mary’s Music School, and the high quality musicians who study there.
A short speech by the Headmaster, Dr Kenneth Taylor, introduced us to the achievements of the school in 24/25, and, despite the ongoing problems for private and specialist schools in the UK at the moment, he was able to be reasonably optimistic about the future, announcing an increase in student numbers next year.
A pretty decent audience had turned up, and the first thing we heard was a piece sung by the young choristers of St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, an arrangement of part of Vaughan Williams’ Mystical Songs, ‘The Call.’ First published in 1911, and premiered that year in Worcester, the Mystical Songs is a short cycle of poems by the 17th Century writer, George Herbert, for baritone and various optional accompaniments. I sang the original version of this beautiful song many years ago, and remember its gentle beginnings leading on to a great and glorious climax in describing devotion to Jesus as matters of Joy, Love and Heart. The choristers brought out all those aspects in a clear and precise manner.
Next, the String Ensemble, led by Valerie Pearson, played two movements from the Suite for String Orchestra by Frank Bridge, showing a pleasing homogeneity of sound throughout the range. The Nocturne in particular was played most impressively and with real feeling.
The centre-piece of the concert was the performance of Camille Saint-Saëns 2nd Piano Concerto, by the Senior Orchestra, conducted by Robert Baxter. The soloist was the winner of this year’s Lord Clyde Concerto Competition, the young Luxembourgeois 6th Former, Ben-David Zasman, who gave an astonishingly mature and virtuosic display of high quality piano playing that would easily have graced an Edinburgh International Festival event in a Queen’s Hall morning concert. Right from the very beginning, when the solo piano announces itself before the orchestra has played a note, it was clear that here was an amazing young talent, totally in command, and absolutely committed to the interpretation of this technically complicated piece. Blessed with a technique that seemed totally natural (but clearly coming from hours of practice), Mr Zasman was equally impressive in sparkling semi-quavers at the top of the range, and big virile chords at climactic points.
The Senior Orchestra gave him splendid backing, and it was no surprise that the audience went wild at the end. Watch out for this name in the not too distant future on a podium near you!
After the interval, we heard the choir (the whole school, including the star pianist) singing two unaccompanied pieces by Elgar and Stanford, ‘Owls’ and ‘The Blue Bird’. I didn’t know the Elgar, but I have been singing ‘The Blue Bird’ ever since I was at school across town at George Watson’s College. Both works were delivered superbly, with no conductor, and demonstrated the obvious hard work which has gone on during the term. Getting the students to listen to each other is a very important part of the musical education process, and it was thrillingly successful. The soprano soloist in the Stamford was not named, but she sang beautifully, with clarity of diction and a pure and ethereal tone which rang out over the choral sound with ease.
Erik Satie wrote his famous ‘Gymnopédies’ for piano in 1888, and they were orchestrated by his friend Claude Debussy in 1896, but it was only some years later that he became famous as a member of Les Six. He was a dandy and an eccentric, changing his public persona from time to time, and he managed to fall out with most of his friends whenever he judged them to be taking attention away from himself. He drank himself to death, dying of liver cirrhosis in 1925 at the age of 59.
This sad story perhaps lends poignancy to his music, his Gymnopédies evoking feelings of sadness and sorrow, despite being based on the idea of naked dancers floating about in Ancient Greece (not many people know that!). The Senior Orchestra, again conducted by Robert Baxter, played with a restrained dignity, with some lovely solo oboe playing.
The concert ended with the first movement from Haydn’s Symphony no 83, nicknamed the Chicken for its quirky clucking second theme with a dotted rhythm. The orchestra played this piece without a conductor, led impeccably from the first desk of the violins by the leader.
In this period when the arts seem permanently in danger, it was wonderful to see that our premier Scottish specialist music school is thriving, with highly motivated and talented students, and a teaching group determined to pass on their experience and knowledge to the next generation.
