Erland Cooper: The Queen’s Hall 200th Anniversary premiere tonight says it all in the title really. This special concert at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh celebrates 200 years of the building itself.
Originally opened in 1823 (this concert was held back a little to fit in with Erland’s touring schedule) as Hope Park Chapel (a chapel of ease), the chapel became a parish church in 1834 and Newington Parish Church served generations of people in the Southside of Edinburgh. The church was dissolved in 1976 and was adapted and reopened as a performance space in 1979.
It was somewhat appropriate that a building originally designed for people to hear the spoken words of a sermon should tonight be hearing the spoken words of Edinburgh poet Ellen Renton. With “Inheritance” and “Passing” (both from the collaborative “Lord of The Isles” project) and other works this evening, Ellen is clearly someone who not only loves words, but the way that, if you let them, they will play with one another and often combine in the most unexpected of ways to make something very unique and special.
For this special event, Erland Cooper premiered a new work for string quartet, not amplified but letting the natural acoustics of the hall carry the sounds as this building was designed to do. The second half of this show included work from Erland’s back catalogue including “Folded Landscapes” and his critically acclaimed “Orkney Trilogy”. Erland Cooper was born and raised on Orkney and it is obvious from his music... read the rest of the review here
Image credit Kat Gollock
(Tom King, Arts Reviews Edinburgh)"This may be a little biased for a review, but as someone who is at this venue a lot over any given year listening to an incredibly diverse selection of music and spoken word, there is something special about this venue and the acoustics of the building, something a little special about the feeling that you get when you are there and like any music venue it can only survive with the support of its musicians and audiences (and a great team behind everything). So please, keep supporting The Queen’s Hall as a live music venue as often as you are able to do and help secure the next 200 years of this building."