A Celebration of Robert Burns
National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh - 25/01/23
A Burns night with a difference
Normally I celebrate Burns night with Edinburgh Folk Club and it’s usually well done with pipers, singers, haggis and because it’s at the Folk Club the singers are decent. Last night at the National Portrait Gallery I experienced a different kind of Burns night, a concert combining poetry, art and music. The singers were sensational. Of course it helped that they were opera singers but both Beth Taylor and Brian Bannatyne-Scott and their pianist John Kitchen are well steeped in the Burns tradition. The art and some Burns poetry and memories were supplied by Calum Colvin, one of Scotland’s finest painters whose portrait of Burns was next to the marble statue of Burns in the foyer of the National Portrait Gallery. Afterwards at the reception Calum Colvin sold a limited edition of prints of his painting and, declaring an interest, I bought one!
The concert was the brainchild of Brian Bannatyne-Scott, who as well as being a fine opera singer is one of the Edinburgh Music Review’s leading critics. He was partnered by Beth Taylor, one of Scotland’s finest young singers who is making a big name for herself in Europe; indeed the Edinburgh Music Review recently reviewed her in Berlin. They were very sensitively accompanied by John Kitchen on the piano. John is a great Edinburgh music institution, having been a lecturer in Edinburgh University’s music dept as well as being university and city organist.
There was a less than smooth start to the evening. Since it was advertised for 6.30 pm, many of us turned up as normal half an hour beforehand, but with the late arrival of security staff were forced to wait outside in the cold till 6.30pm. However once we got into the splendid setting of the ground floor foyer of the NPG it was warm and welcoming. The NPG has splendid acoustics and even people on the balcony reported that the sound flowed perfectly upwards and without microphones. Of course when considering voices with the power of Brian’s and Beth’s, the notion of a mike is just silly. Beth in particular has a powerful lustrous voice with great tone and colour and enormous volume. Brian, although now retired from the opera stage, still has a strong, well focussed bass voice and indeed he began the concert with a rendition of ‘Ca the Yowes’ from outside the concert area.
There was then a selection of songs by Burns, arranged by Schumann, Shostakovich, Britten and Beethoven, Burns is truly loved internationally. There were also arrangements by Scots composers F.G. Scott and Rory Boyle and a first performance of a beautiful arrangement of ‘Call the Yowes’ by Tom Cunningham, who was with us last night. The concert ended with Brian and Beth singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’, arranged by Beethoven who was a big fan of Burns. Of course our folk advisor Dave Francis will tell you that wasn’t the original tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
This was a Burns night with a difference but one I won’t forget in a long time. Let’s hope Brian can add to it each year.
