ALAN COOPER

Ensembles were the order of the day at the seventh concert that is the annual showcase for Aberdeen City Music School. The programme was cunningly devised to highlight individual talents while giving as many young musicians as possible a chance to shine. There was a fabulous guitar duo with music by Astor Piazzolla, a Sonata for two pianos and percussion by Bartok and trios playing music by Debussy and Stravinsky. A rousing ceilidh band complete with bagpiper, or a Palm Court orchestra featuring a delightful young soprano, but the highlight of the first half was The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives. With strings, woodwind and solo trumpet exploiting the entire space of the Music Hall, this performance proved that the ultimate in pianissimo playing can be unforgettably spectacular.

Bringing just about the whole music school together, The Leopard Dances, a six-movement suite of dances and songs, was a bespoke commission conducted by Aberdeen-born composer John McLeod. Its Mini-Overture sprouted wisps of warm melody out of McLeod's more hard-edged style. Warmth versus chill, it was a thread that ran through the entire piece, defining the very soul of Aberdeen. The third movement, Tango, echoing Kurt Weill with its accordions, saxophone and trumpet, contrasted with the eerie sounds of the Waltz ending in the chilly downpour of a percussion rainstick. The rough-and-tumble humour of The Jeely Bap led into a joyful Ceilidh, where Scott Skinner's toe-tapping dance music gleamed with the welcoming lights of the ceilidh shining out into the dark of city streets.

It was the Aberdeen of McLeod's youth portrayed magnificently in his music.