Cathedral: Into Tomorrow, Edinburgh review: 'a rich tapestry of words and music'
Cathedral: Into Tomorrow, St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh ★★★★
Given the turbulent times we live in, the question posed in the strapline of this powerful performance of Cathedral: Into Tomorrow was especially apt: what kind of Saint do we need in the world today?
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Hide AdCentral to this commission by St Giles’ Cathedral as part of its 900th anniversary celebrations was Hannah Lavery’s poem, “Tomorrow Cathedral” which looked this question squarely in the eye.
It sketched heart-wrenching tableaux we are all too familiar with: the boy dancing in the rubble “breaking the light”; a girl sitting outside her tent in a refugee camp “her maths books spilling out like a prayer, one yet to be answered…” and a father queueing at the food bank, “his love-worn patches on his knees”.
These lines were intricately woven, by a range of community groups, into a beautiful tapestry of music that arched across the cathedral’s axes to frame Lavery’s narrative as she traversed the space.
North to south a richly layered brass ensemble - made up of Portobello High School pupils, the Cooperation Band and the Wallace Collection - exchanged robust volleys of glittering fanfares, written by Scotland’s foremost trumpeter John Wallace.
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Hide AdNot to be outdone, east to west, composer/conductor Stephen Deazly’s offerings were brought to life by a raft of choirs: Ama-zing Harmonies, SongTribe Community Choir, the Edinburgh Ukrainian Choir and at their heart, the talented children from Abbeyhill Primary School. Assisted by the third co-music director/conductor Ali Burns, this wonderful mix of voices amplified and embellish Lavery’s evocative imagery as it repeated and circled round itself. They sang individually and together - the Ukrainian children’s lullaby Kotyku Siren’ky spun a soothing and timeless moment of enchantment.
The poem ended with us, the lockdown neighbours who, in the absence of modern-day saints, came to our front steps, the bearers of hope.
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