RSNO Ethan Loch Plays Gershwin Usher Hall Edinburgh 27th March 2026 Review
RSNO Ethan Loch plays Gershwin at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was an opportunity to hear a live performance of one of the most instantly identifiable works of the 20th century, "Rhapsody in Blue", performed by one of today's most in-demand concert pianists.
It is hard to believe that "Rhapsody in Blue" was written over 100 years ago in 1924, as the music never seems to age. Oddly though, it also at the same time transports us back in time to how many of us imagine the jazz age to have sounded in cities across America.
This music, from that unmistakable clarinet opening sound followed by brass sections, leading into the instantly identifiable sounds of the piano and then the full power of the orchestra, is simply 15 minutes of magic. It is hard to believe now that "Rhapsody in Blue" was written for a jazz orchestra over a short period of 5/6 weeks by George Gershwin who was very unsure of the reception that a jazz/classical music crossover concert event would have, as the two were regarded as very distinct musical genres at the time. As Gershwin was then unsure of his abilities to arrange this music for the jazz orchestra, it was band leader Paul Whiteman's pianist and chief arranger Ferde Grofé who took on this task. It was also Grofé who arranged the full 1942 symphony orchestra version that we all heard tonight.
"Rhapsody in Blue" is a true masterpiece, merging the worlds of jazz and classical music, but it is also a kaleidoscope of the many different musical rhythms and styles of the time, and in the right hands it is simply full of energy and fun to listen to.
The right hands tonight were the musicians of the RSNO and conductor Thomas Søndergård with Blantyre-born Ethan Loch on piano. Born in 2004, Ethan Loch is a composer/pianist who even at this early stage of his professional career has been attracting a lot of attention from both the media and the classical world. His national and international performances, which have all taken place whilst he continues his undergraduate studies at the RCS (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), have been hugely popular with audiences.
Tonight, "Rhapsody in Blue" was the perfect music for Ethan Loch as his ability to feel the music and become part of it was just as important as his technical skills on piano, and his pleasure at performing to this audience tonight was obvious. In return, the applause given to Ethan for this and a cadenza from his own larger composition was fully justified.
Magic and spells, be they musical ones or otherwise, was a theme of tonight's music, and the opening work "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by George Dukas, and first performed in 1897, was simply 12 minutes of the unexpected, but always fun, music set to a very old story of an apprentice who enchants a wooden broomstick to do his chores. Unfortunately, the apprentice does not know how to stop the broom and mayhem ensues.
The opening moments of this work may have been unfamiliar to many people, but that soon changed. In the 1940 Walt Disney film "Fantasia", Mickey Mouse is choreographed into this music in his role as "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice", and it is probably fair to say that many of us in the audience tonight saw him in our mind’s eye during this performance.
The closing work this evening, Maurice Ravel's "L'enfant et les sortilèges" (The Child and the Spells) from 1925 continued the magical theme, this time with the story of a brat of a child being forced to re-examine his behaviour. This story by French writer Colette began life as a commissioned ballet scenario by the Paris Opera with Ravel agreeing to write the music.
In this story, the objects and furniture, even the wallpaper in the boy’s room, take on lives of their own and this continued when they go outside to the garden as a tree speaks, along with cats, a squirrel, a frog, and a dragonfly, who all have reason to dislike this boy.
I kept hearing a voice in my head throughout this 45 minute performance saying to me from an old television show “and now for something completely different" as this best describes for me what was on stage tonight. Here the RSNO were joined by the RSNO Youth Chorus and Mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany. In front of the chorus on stage, the main characters from this story were costumed for what was really an opera without scenery performance sung in French with English surtitles on screen. The effect was a spellbinding story with a music performance by the RSNO that was full of fun, surprises and absurdity.
Had this work been written some four decades later, this story would probably have been described as a "bad acid experience" by this boy.
As much as the music, tonight was simply fun to watch and listen to.
Review by Tom King (c) 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
It is hard to believe that "Rhapsody in Blue" was written over 100 years ago in 1924, as the music never seems to age. Oddly though, it also at the same time transports us back in time to how many of us imagine the jazz age to have sounded in cities across America.
This music, from that unmistakable clarinet opening sound followed by brass sections, leading into the instantly identifiable sounds of the piano and then the full power of the orchestra, is simply 15 minutes of magic. It is hard to believe now that "Rhapsody in Blue" was written for a jazz orchestra over a short period of 5/6 weeks by George Gershwin who was very unsure of the reception that a jazz/classical music crossover concert event would have, as the two were regarded as very distinct musical genres at the time. As Gershwin was then unsure of his abilities to arrange this music for the jazz orchestra, it was band leader Paul Whiteman's pianist and chief arranger Ferde Grofé who took on this task. It was also Grofé who arranged the full 1942 symphony orchestra version that we all heard tonight.
"Rhapsody in Blue" is a true masterpiece, merging the worlds of jazz and classical music, but it is also a kaleidoscope of the many different musical rhythms and styles of the time, and in the right hands it is simply full of energy and fun to listen to.
The right hands tonight were the musicians of the RSNO and conductor Thomas Søndergård with Blantyre-born Ethan Loch on piano. Born in 2004, Ethan Loch is a composer/pianist who even at this early stage of his professional career has been attracting a lot of attention from both the media and the classical world. His national and international performances, which have all taken place whilst he continues his undergraduate studies at the RCS (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), have been hugely popular with audiences.
Tonight, "Rhapsody in Blue" was the perfect music for Ethan Loch as his ability to feel the music and become part of it was just as important as his technical skills on piano, and his pleasure at performing to this audience tonight was obvious. In return, the applause given to Ethan for this and a cadenza from his own larger composition was fully justified.
Magic and spells, be they musical ones or otherwise, was a theme of tonight's music, and the opening work "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by George Dukas, and first performed in 1897, was simply 12 minutes of the unexpected, but always fun, music set to a very old story of an apprentice who enchants a wooden broomstick to do his chores. Unfortunately, the apprentice does not know how to stop the broom and mayhem ensues.
The opening moments of this work may have been unfamiliar to many people, but that soon changed. In the 1940 Walt Disney film "Fantasia", Mickey Mouse is choreographed into this music in his role as "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice", and it is probably fair to say that many of us in the audience tonight saw him in our mind’s eye during this performance.
The closing work this evening, Maurice Ravel's "L'enfant et les sortilèges" (The Child and the Spells) from 1925 continued the magical theme, this time with the story of a brat of a child being forced to re-examine his behaviour. This story by French writer Colette began life as a commissioned ballet scenario by the Paris Opera with Ravel agreeing to write the music.
In this story, the objects and furniture, even the wallpaper in the boy’s room, take on lives of their own and this continued when they go outside to the garden as a tree speaks, along with cats, a squirrel, a frog, and a dragonfly, who all have reason to dislike this boy.
I kept hearing a voice in my head throughout this 45 minute performance saying to me from an old television show “and now for something completely different" as this best describes for me what was on stage tonight. Here the RSNO were joined by the RSNO Youth Chorus and Mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany. In front of the chorus on stage, the main characters from this story were costumed for what was really an opera without scenery performance sung in French with English surtitles on screen. The effect was a spellbinding story with a music performance by the RSNO that was full of fun, surprises and absurdity.
Had this work been written some four decades later, this story would probably have been described as a "bad acid experience" by this boy.
As much as the music, tonight was simply fun to watch and listen to.
Review by Tom King (c) 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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