Reaching the C: Ursula Leveaux

The Space@ Symposium Hall, Hill Place18/8/26

Ursula Leveaux (Bassoon)

I have known Ursula Leveaux on and off for a very long time, as a colleague. As Principal Bassoon with the SCO from 1987-2007, she will be remembered by many of our readers. She has occasionally played in orchestras when I have been singing, but we have rarely exchanged more than a word or two. Singers and instrumentalists have a relationship that is hard to evaluate - mutual respect but also mutual incomprehension! We are all musicians but we are very different animals. We singers crave the limelight and want to be seen and loved, while most instrumentalists (and this clearly is ridiculously generalised, but I’m going with it anyway) are happy to be part of a larger whole, be it in an orchestra or in a chamber ensemble.

I have socialised with bassoonists occasionally, in early music or contemporary music settings, and have been intrigued by this big, unwieldy wind instrument, which plays a lot of the notes I sing as a bass. So, it was with keen interest and curiosity that I went along to this show, playing at theSpace@Symposium Hall in Hill Square, Venue 43, near the Festival Theatre, at this year’s Fringe. Entitled ‘Reaching the C’, it is a fascinating musical journey, which takes us from the pre-teen Ursula picking up her first bassoon, through the life of a bassoonist. It is definitely not a memoirs show, but rather an emotional exposition of what it takes to be a bassoon player, told brilliantly through various musical excerpts using a loop pedal.

She starts by assembling her bassoon, and ends by disassembling it, giving us a nice visual symmetry, and also a simple understanding of the instrument. The title, Reaching the C, refers to the fact that her first lesson, at a very young age, allowed her to play the easiest notes on the bassoon – F, E and D. C was considered too difficult at the beginning, but, as we learned, the young Ursula was not so easily defeated, and had mastered C a week later!

The show lasts about 45 minutes and never flags, with music playing a predominant role in the story. Only when she described a down phase of her life did she play something I particularly recognised, and how apposite that she played Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’.

As Ursula says in her publicity, the show is “a story about living and learning, unexpected paths and places, and about finding your way through.” Originally a collaboration with Rosemary Harris, and here directed by Ben Wright, this is a very thoughtful show which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in music.

It plays every day until August 22nd at 4.10pm, in Hill Square, where there is also an open air cafe for a drink before or after the show. What’s not to like?