The Usher Hall was full for a concert which opened with a jaunty frolic in the park. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the son of a doctor from Sierra Leone, wrote his Ballade for the 1898 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester.
Earlier in the Upper Circle Bar, Principal Flute Katherine Bryan gave us a brief insight to the evening's music and a first class balanced and entertaining interview with the twenty year old blind pianist, Ethan Loch, who was to perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1.
Although born in Scotland, Ethan Loch earliest years were in Vancouver - and you can just detect this in his speech - where as young as eighteen months he was negotiating a piano keyboard. Piano lessons soon followed and back in Scotland participation in festivals and competitions led to a year at St Mary's Music School, their first blind student. Along the way, in 2017, was included winning the Advanced class of the James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition and in 2022 winning the BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category Final. Now he is studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
It was Thomas Søndergård, the Orchestra's Music Director, who led Ethan Loch to the piano and we watched as he immediately found his way round its keyboard. It appeared to be a faultless performance and, of course, the audience wanted more. With microphone in hand Ethan told us the lights would be dimmed for his composition Tranquility - so we could share what it is like to be blind. And as sound is so important he gave us his improvisation on the acoustic of the Usher Hall.
After the interval several players had their moments of glory in the eight numbers from the ballet music from Swan Lake - the triumph for Tchaikovsky that encouraged him to go on to Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. For us it was the conductor and players of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at their best, and who added the Scène finale for a rousing end to a memorable concert.
Event: Friday 29th November 2024 at 7.30pm