Fringe: Armistice 1918 – British and French Airs of Death and Love

Classical
Written By Hugh Kerr

Church of St Andrews and St George - 18/08/23 

Jennifer Witton, soprano | Ben-San Lau, piano  

Another impressive concert by Ian McFarlane 

Ian McFarlane has done a great job over the years in introducing to the Fringe fine young singers on their way up to stardom. Last week I reviewed Andrei Kymach, a former winner of the Singer of the World, and today another of Ian’s earlier protegees, Catriona Morison, also a former winner of the Singer of the World, is singing in the International Festival. Today he has brought us Jennifer Witton, a fine young soprano who can be compared favourably to his earlier singers. Jennifer is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and its opera school and is already beginning a career in the opera companies of Britain and Europe. She was very sensitively accompanied by Ben-San Lau on piano; he has performed widely across Britain and is now in residence at Paris Opera. 

The theme of the concert is Armistice, songs written around the First World War by British composer Roger Quilter and French composer Reynaldo Hahn. Jennifer has a big voice which clearly has a future on the opera stage, and maybe at times was too big for the quiet setting of St Andrews and St George, but she also gave the songs meaning and colour which evoked the spirit of the period. She began with Roger Quilter’s ‘Come Away Death’ and ended with Reynaldo Hahn’s exquisite ‘A Chloris’, both beautifully sung, and in between she did justice to a varied programme of songs. Sadly very few people were present to hear Jennifer’s excellent concert, the perennial problem of competing on the Fringe with 3000 different shows. Like all Ian’s singers, Jennifer Witton would have graced the International Festival programme and I won’t be surprised to see her there in future. 

Don’t miss Ian’s final concert ‘Memories of Summer in Edinburgh’ on Friday 25th at 2.30pm with Jennifer Witton and Bethan Langford, again at the Church of St Andrew and St George in George Street. 

Hugh Kerr

Hugh Kerr is Co-Editor of the Edinburgh Music Review with Christine Twine. This is now 5 years old and the leading online classical music magazine in Scotland. Hugh is not a trained musician but has been attending concerts and operas for over 50 years and has written for the Guardian, the Scotsman, the Herald, Opera magazine and the Wee Review. When he was an MEP in 1994-99 he was in charge of music policy for the European Parliament.

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