★★★★ The Sanctuary at the New Town Church is one of those rooms that seems to breathe with you the moment you step inside. Circular, warm, and architecturally striking, it’s the kind of space that flatters a mezzo-soprano before she’s even sung a note. As the audience settled, the room’s natural resonance promised an evening shaped by history, language, and the long shadow of Mary Stuart.
This concert, led by Norwegian mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland with Ben‑San Lau at the piano, set out to honour not one anniversary but two: the 440th year since Mary Queen of Scots became Queen of Three Kingdoms, and the 400th anniversary of composer John Dowland. It’s an ambitious pairing—royal tragedy and Renaissance melancholy—and the programme moved between France, Scotland and England, with Marianne singing in all three languages.
Kielland is no stranger to major stages. Her career spans Europe, America and Japan, and she has appeared in operas from Moscow to Paris to Versailles. That experience shows. Her voice carries a calm authority, the kind that doesn’t need to announce itself. She moves through French repertoire with ease, letting the phrasing unfurl gently, and when she shifts into Scots or English, the tone darkens slightly, as though she’s adjusting the emotional temperature of the room.
The evening unfolded like a platter of songs—carefully chosen, beautifully delivered—but at times a little opaque. Most pieces were sung in French, and while the leaflet provided a set list, it offered no guidance beyond titles. Without spoken introductions, it became difficult to track where we were in the journey. A few words from Marianne—about her connection to the material, her love of mezzo repertoire, or even a brief nod to Mary Stuart’s turbulent life—would have added welcome texture. Her singing was expressive, but the silence between songs created a distance that didn’t need to be there.
Still, when the music was allowed to speak, it did so with clarity. Lau’s piano playing was sensitive and unobtrusive, shaping the atmosphere without ever overshadowing the voice. Together they created moments of real stillness, the kind that make an audience lean forward rather than sit back.
This concert was, in many ways, a tribute to lineage—musical, historical, and linguistic. It honoured Mary Queen of Scots not through storytelling but through sound, through the languages she lived in and the cultures she moved between. A little more communication from the stage would have deepened the experience, but the artistry itself was undeniable.
Reviewed by Jacqueline Sharp
