RSNO: Dukas, Gershwin and Ravel
Usher Hall, 27/3/2026
RSNO - Thomas Søndergård (conductor), Ethan Loch (piano), Anna Stéphany (mezzo-soprano)
Friday 27th March saw the launch of the RSNO 2026/2027 Season in a presentation in the Usher Hall before the evening concert. It promises to be a fabulous season of 16 classical concerts, and I will write a preview for the EMR in a few days. Today, I would only like to point out the fantastic news that Beth Taylor, the Scottish mezzo-soprano, was announced as Artist In Residence for the whole season. As readers will know, I have been raving about Beth since 2019, when I recognised the enormous talent this lovely modest girl from Glasgow possessed, and early on gave her concert openings along with myself in St Michael’s Church in Edinburgh. Her immense talent, a glorious voice matched by consummate artistry, was clear from the beginning, and our CD, ‘Songs of Edinburgh’, with words by Alexander McColl Smith and music by Tom Cunningham, available on Amazon, demonstrates that early promise. That she has become in only five years or so one of the finest mezzos on the planet is astonishing but hardly surprising, only last week singing alto in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in Munich and Hamburg with Sir Simon Rattle! She will sing a solo recital, with Hamish Brown (piano), in this year’s Edinburgh International Festival on 11th August, and I am delighted to announce that she will join me and some other young superstars in an Afternoon of French Opera in the New Town Church in George Street at 2.30 on the 14th August, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The season launch, notable for musical contributions by several of the RSNO players, led nicely into the evening’s concert, with music by Dukas, Gershwin and Ravel.
I was wondering as I listened to ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ by Paul Dukas (1865-1935), how old one has to be not to see Mickey Mouse when you hear this piece. The truly funny sequence invented by Walt Disney to accompany the music in his 1940 film, ‘Fantasia’, has become so iconic for a generation of film goers, that it’s probably only millennials and younger who would be able to listen to this clever piece simply as music! The story of a rogue broomstick and a lazy apprentice to a magician is, as the programme note told us, nearly 2,000 years old, and Disney was just one of the more recent interpreters. Dukas’s version, first heard in Paris in 1897, reveals a fantastic orchestrator with a well-developed sense of humour, and is a particular gift to bassoonists and contra-bassoonists (bravo to David Hubbard and Paolo Dutto, and the section). Thomas Søndergård conducted a well-judged performance in an attractive opening to the concert.
The other piece in the first half was the extraordinary ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, the work that announced to the world the prodigious talent of the 26 year old George Gershwin. The opening riff for the clarinet is perhaps the most famous opening of any 20th century composition (wonderfully played by Timothy Orpen), and it set the scene for a rollicking account by the supremely talented blind Scottish pianist, Ethan Loch. Readers will remember the fascinating interview I conducted with Ethan last year, and since that time, he has been amazingly busy, working on his undergraduate studies with Professor Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, being nominated for Young Artist of the Year 2025 at the Royal Philharmonic Society, taking part in the Ryedale Festival, appearing with the Manchester Camerata, and playing solo shows all over Scotland, and at the King’s Place in London.
His appearance at the Usher Hall was greeted by great whoops from his fan club, and no-one could grudge him his well-deserved success. The ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is a perfect vehicle for his talents, as it combines technical virtuosity with interpretive flexibility, as long stretches are entirely open to improvisation, which, as a composer himself, is both thrilling and challenging. Ethan rose to these challenges wonderfully, and it was clear (as he pointed out in our correspondence before the concert) that he and Mr Søndergård enjoy a fantastic musical relationship, and through that, with the whole orchestra as well. It is also marvellous to watch Ethan at the piano, as he gets right in the mood even when not playing, in anticipation of his next entries. There is a huge amount of trust between soloist and conductor, which is empathetic and not visual. The usual interaction of nods and winks, looks and glances are not available with Ethan, but such is his phenomenal talent that one is completely relaxed as a listener and viewer. The ovation at the end was stupendous and Ethan honoured us with the cadenza from his own piano concerto as an encore. Clearly, we have to hear that concerto soon!
After an interval filled with chatter and wonderment at what we had just heard, we were further thrilled by a semi-staged performance of Ravel’s brilliant one act opera, ‘L’Enfant et les Sortilèges’ (The Child and the Spells) given by the RSNO and students of the Conservatoire, along with the RSNO Youth Chorus. The role of the child was taken by the excellent mezzo-soprano, Anna Stéphany.
Strangely, I had never seen or heard the opera before, and the nature of the roles, mainly small character parts, were such that I would never have been involved with it in my own career. However, it is absolutely perfect for a conservatoire, with a myriad of small roles showing off various aspects of young voices with no risk of damage to them. Basically, the plot is a nursery tale of a spoilt child who trashes his toys and cruelly tortures garden animals, and who is brought to see the error of his ways by the magic coming to life of said toys and the tortured creatures. It’s a sort of operatic ‘Toy Story’!
The text is by the famous woman of letters, Colette, a figure of much controversy and intrigue, who flourished particularly in the inter-war years in France, and who became most famous for her 1944 novella, ‘Gigi’. The collaboration of Ravel and Colette was a heady one, although the project had started life as a ballet commissioned in 1916 by the director of the Paris Opéra, and only transformed into an opera nearer to its premiere in Monte Carlo in 1925. One of my last productions as an opera singer was Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Monte Carlo Opéra in 2017, in the grand theatre adjoining the Casino, designed in the 19th century by Charles Garnier, who also designed the magnificent Palais Garnier in Paris, L’Opéra. Performing in this glorious monument to Napoleon III style, built between 1876 and 1879, one was able to reflect on the many famous works which had been premiered in Monte Carlo, one of which was ‘L’Enfant et les Sortilèges’.
Ravel poured all his genius into this slight tale, and what emerged was a fantastic pot-pourri of styles and idioms. From the opening, in which we hear double bass harmonics, the composer introduces all sorts of musical ideas from baroque glamour through contemporary jazz elements to fabulous coloratura flights of fancy, and eventually to warmly empathetic and almost impressionist shimmering contentment.
We hear a sarabande for furniture, an oriental foxtrot (with English dialogue) for a Chinese tea set, an amazing coloratura showpiece for a fire, sensual cats speaking in Miaouish, numbers from an arithmetic book, and a princess mourning her lost rescuer. Various animals come to life: a jaunty frog, a flitting dragonfly, a batty bat and even a speaking tree.
The students from the Conservatoire rose splendidly to the challenge, and clearly thoroughly relished the chance to sing with a full symphony orchestra, and the excellent Thomas Søndergård. In a cast of thousands, stand out stars were Anna Pych as the Fire, Alex White as the Tree, Zachary Smith as the Tree Frog and the little old man of Arithmetic and Shauna Healey as the Princess. Anna Stéphany brought professional poise to the child, and the various section principals in the orchestra all had moments to savour.
Audience contentment was apparent at the end, and in the streets outside, and what had seemed a somewhat random programme was fully justified. What was not justified, in my opinion, was the marketing of the concert, which was all about Ethan Loch and Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. I am the last person to grudge Ethan’s appeal, and I agree entirely with any publicity to headline his supreme talent, but to sell a concert only on his contribution, and to completely ignore in the marketing a wonderful opera featuring many fine young singers from the Conservatoire seemed weird. Initially, I read the publicity as an evening of Gershwin, featuring Ethan Loch, and I am sure many members of the audience were tempted along on that message. Surely, the RSNO can advertise a whole programme and not just a part thereof, without losing vast swathes of listeners. It was similar to the concert a few weeks ago, sold as a showcase for a horn player in Strauss’s Horn Concerto, and entirely missing the fact that the second half was a magnificent performance of Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, one of the greatest of all 19th century symphonies.
This is just a little caveat and should not detract from praise for a supreme concert from our brilliant national orchestra, the RSNO.
