Afternoon Arias
New Town Church, 16/8/2025
Emma Morwood, soprano, Catherine Backhouse, mezzo soprano, Magnus Walker, tenor, Brian Bannatyne-Scott, bass, Michal Gajzler, piano
This was a concert that lived up to its title: it gave us a delightful afternoon of operatic arias in the splendid Georgian setting of the New Town Church in George St, surely one of the finest fringe venues in the festival. What’s more the church was very full, with more than 200 people present. Who said that opera isn’t popular? The concert was organised by Brian Bannatyne-Scott who not only is a distinguished international opera singer but, declaration of interest, is one of the Edinburgh Music Review’s main reviewers. Brian had chosen to take arias from composers whose music might have been heard in the church at or around its foundation in 1784, with arias from Purcell, Handel and Mozart, concluding with Beethoven. These proved to be a very good choice, allowing the four singers to display their individual talents, but also to sing in duets and trios and to end with the wonderful quartet from ‘Fidelio’.
We were also fortunate to have three very fine young singers to back up Brian’s experienced voice. Emma Morwood is a superb soprano who I first came across when she was a student at the University of Edinburgh. Since then she has built a reputation both in Scotland and across Europe and last year she was a last minute cast change for the Italian singer in Strauss’s ‘Capriccio’, the closing concert of the Edinburgh Festival, where she made a great impression. Later that year I heard her sing a splendid open-air performance of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ at Pitlochry. Emma’s voice has become richer and more powerful over the years and today it filled the church, no need for amplification here! Emma sang arias from Purcell’s ‘King Arthur’ and Handel’s ‘Giulio Cesare’ , Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ and Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’. Brian Bannatyne-Scott interviewed Emma last year in the Edinburgh Music Review if you would like further details about her.
Catherine Backhouse is a mezzo-soprano who began her musical career singing in the chorus at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral and went on to study music at the University of Durham and the Guildhall School of Music. She was a Scottish Opera emerging artist and has since been making a name for herself across the UK. She is currently performing in ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ in the Festival Fringe which our reviewer praised highly in the ‘Edinburgh Music Review’. Catherine sang solo the lovely aria ‘Remember me’ from Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’ and in company with the others in arias from Handel, Mozart and Beethoven.
Magnus Walker is a young tenor who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2023 and is now having success across the UK and Europe. He has a very sweet tenor voice and opened the concert with a Purcell’s aria from ‘King Arthur’, later giving us the famous ‘Where’re you walk’ from Handel’s ‘Semele’ and was a very good Tamino in extracts from ‘The Magic Flute’. Clearly he is a performer to watch out for.
Good as the young singers were they could learn much from the experienced voice of Brian Bannatyne-Scott who not only produced a rich melodic voice in his solos but clear diction and a sensitive accompaniment in his duets and in the Beethoven Quartet from ‘Fidelio’. It was a fitting ending to a melodic afternoon and received a warm reception from the packed church.
The singers were superbly accompanied throughout by pianist Michael Gajzler, originally from Poland but now on the staff of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
