The view from the Ross Bandstand before the audience gathered for our performance of Rock.  The show went very well and we, the three bits of rock on the stage, had a very good view of the imaginative and well choreographed scenes that were played out at ground level in the area that the council have christened the terrazzo (sic).

As you can see from the photo the weather was relatively benign as it was throughout the StagEHd festival, which is a mercy since the casts not lucky enough to have the shelter those of us on stage had could have been very uncomfortable.

Plans are already afoot for StagEHd 2023.  See the website.

The week before Rock went up I paid a visit to the Saturday market on Castle Terrace.  It's something I've been meaning to do for some time especially since the bus home from my Saturday morning sax lessons passes conveniently close.  But there always seems to have been something that got in the way.  Rain for example or some pressing engagement or just a desire to get home and put my feet up.  

Not a patch on the market held outside my flat in the Boulevard Auguste Blanqui twice a week.  Or was it thrice?  A poor cousin even to the market in Guéret but not bad for Scotland and the fare on offer was very good.  I loaded up my bag with a pig cheeks and black pudding lunch, dressed crab, venison in various forms and a loaf of tasty bread.

I'll go again but not on my way home from a sax lesson.  Rocio has decided to stop giving regular private lessons.  Mostly it's in response to her husband's change of job which means they are both working full time.  Quite a change after twelve years but I'm in no rush to find another teacher.  I can still have the occasional lesson with her or I may just settle into playing what I fancy when I can be bothered.

We had a sort of farewell Sunday lunch but being a Spanish lunch the invitation was for 4pm, later postponed to 5pm because of her nine year old's attendance at a cello workshop. (Her six year old declares loyalty to the sax but we shall see.) In the event it was 6pm when lunch was served.  I had a very pleasant few hours with them and it was really nice to spend some time with the kids whom I've only seen in the passing over the years.

I missed the RSNO's performance of the Symphonie Fantastique which was a shame since I like it but have never heard it played live.  I've forgotten why I didn't get there but I did get to their season ending concert the main work of which was Beethoven's 9th Symphony.  The last movement of it is great with the chorus giving it laldy but I'm not a great fan of the rest of it.  For me the piece of the evening was a brand new flute concerto by the young Scotttish composer Jay Capperauld.  The piece is called Our Gilded Veins and in essence begins in chaos which gradually over the twenty minutes it lasts resolves into order.  It was absolutely beautiful and I look forward to being able to get a recording sometime.  It's worth reading what Jay has to say about it so I've copied his programme note:

"Our Gilded Veins is inspired by the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi, the mending of broken objects in order not only to repair them but to highlight their previous damage in a special and positive way. If a plate is broken, instead of throwing it away it is glued together with gilded lacquer to emphasise and celebrate the break as part of the object's history.

Essentially, as a human concept, Our Gilded Veins is an honest reflection on damage, failure and scars, with the intention of embracing the necessity of life’s negatives while attempting to forge a positive existential outcome. The concept of cultivating a positive state of mental health is at the crux of the work’s  concerns. The most positive step forward in  recent years is the gradual societal change in  attitudes towards the stigma surrounding  mental health, particularly where mental  illness is concerned. As attitudes change, a  deeper understanding of more sophisticated  practical techniques that nurture positive  mental health has developed alongside a  collective empathy and desire to help others  (and ourselves) maintain a balanced state of  mind. 

Musicians know more than most that  music plays a demonstrably powerful role  in the recovery process as well as the  safeguarding of our mental health - to the  point where the phrase 'Music saved my life'  has become a recurring theme in the stories of  those who have faced the various harrowing  circumstances in their lives. As a composer I also have an avid interest in  psychology - to the point where I would have  pursued a career as a psychologist had my  path towards music failed - and I am  particularly intrigued by how our internal  worlds are shaped by and, conversely, reflected  in the external world around us. In this way, I  often think of my music as having its own  independent consciousness and psychological  agenda, which is representative of specific  emotional states that attempt not only to  portray 'how' certain psychologies manifest  themselves, but to explore and highlight 'why'  these states of mind develop and why the  music might 'act' in the way that it does.

Therefore, the concept of kintsugi acts as a  fitting metaphor for the human experience,  which is an undeniable reflection of how we  must interact with the external world as well  as how we negotiate the various knocks that  life throws our way. It is through this metaphor  that Our Gilded Veins attempts to explore,  highlight and champion the message of  positive mental health in a musical context, as  well as the idea that broken objects ought to  be celebrated and nurtured, not discarded." 

 © Jay Capperauld 

By coincidence mental health lies beneath the plot of The Scandal at Mayerling with which Scottish Ballet bestrode the Festival Theatre stage to great acclaim by the audience including myself.  Crown Prince Rudolph going nuts (syphilis?) as he spirals down through a torrent of sex, violence and alcohol to a dramatically conclusive murder/suicide with his besotted young lover.  Some very strenuous dancing by the principals and great ensemble work against a grandly imagined Hapsburg Empire set.  I loved it.

I've never been a great fan of the style of humour found in the days of the silent film which persisted through at least the early years of the "talkies".  Some of that features in Laurel and Hardy by Tom McGrath that the Lyceum has revived with the same cast who played in its world premiere in the same theatre 17 years ago.  They do those snippets very well and I found myself amused despite my reluctance.  The play though is not simply a recreation of their work but a presentation of the origins and development of their partnership and of aspects of their personal lives.  It's extremely well put together, staged and performed.  A treat for fans and non fans alike.

Andy Ellis, an erstwhile stalwart of the Grads and of the SCDA, with his wife Sue was on a visit to Edinburgh and I went with others to say hi at a meal at Pomegranate just up the road. It was a good evening with excellent Middle Eastern nosh.  I'd taken a bottle of wine but the restaurant is no longer a BYOB establishment so we forced to drink from their rather tasty list.

The place I'm going this evening, the unique Konj Cafe, also provides Middle Eastern food, in their case specifically Iranian.  The food is lovely and this time the bottle I take won't come home with me because they are still BYOB.

Summer seems a long time coming to Edinburgh this year.  We had a few nice days in March, fewer in April and it seems to me almost none in May.  The last day of May wasn't too bad and got better as morning turned to afternoon so I determined to make a little excursion and set off along the East Lothian coast.  Not very far along because I got off the bus at Fisherrow and walked along the sands to the mouth of the Esk and then upriver to Musselburgh town centre and a bus home.  But it was a beautiful walk and I clicked away with my camera.  I leave you with one of my artistic shots - Inchkeith and the coast of Fife glimpsed through gorse.