Music, Classical

Misterstourworm and the Kelpie’s Gift

ORCHESTRAL CD Circular Music, Mon 9 Jun Back in 2003, Billy Boyd was a well kent face in Scottish theatre but the world had yet to know his name. At that point, composer Savourna Stevenson and writer Stuart Paterson secured Boyd’s services to narrate…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: orchestra+

NEW COLLABORATIONS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 19 Jun The names Elvis Costello and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra aren’t likely contenders for appearing in the same sentence. Neither are the RSNO and Video Games Live. More regular…

Scottish Opera: Falstaff

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 13, Thu 15, Sat 17, Wed 21 & Sat 24 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 18, Sat 21, Thu 26 & Sat 28 Jun Long before any government directives on obesity, Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff knew all about the challenges…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Finale! Brilliant Benedetti

Playing the Szymanowski concerto (and look out for his opera King Roger at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival) that shot her to fame as winner of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2004, violin prodigy Nicola Benedetti (pictured) is top…

London & Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras - Separately & Together

JAZZ (Emanem Records) For reasons both practical and aesthetic large ensembles have been the exception rather than the rule in the world of free improvisation. Both the London and the rather younger Glasgow Improvisers Orchestras have happily flown in…

The Teak Project

JAZZ (First Hand Records) The Teak Project is a collaboration between sitar player Jonathan Mayer (son of Indo-jazz fusion pioneer John Mayer), guitarist Justin Quinn and tabla player Neil Craig. They describe the project as a collaboration of…

Scottish Ensemble: Essential Ensemble

Welcoming back a great friend for the last of their concerts this season, the Scottish Ensemble is joined by Raphael Wallfisch (pictured), one of the UK’s most expressive cellists and one who consistently delights audiences wherever he performs.

Opera Unwrapped returns

Book now for Scottish Opera's behind-the-scenes scheme SCOTTISH OPERA’S Opera Unwrapped season kicks off again next month in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The strand offers fans and novices an hour-long behind-the-scenes look at the new season’s…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

NEW COMMISSION Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 10 Apr; City Halls, Glasgow, Fri 11 Apr It’s not often that a new orchestral commission has its world premiere in Strathpeffer, but that is what happened in the case of Stuart MacRae’s Scottish Chamber…

Peter & The Wolf

DANCE & CLASSICAL MUSIC Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 26 & Thu 27 Mar To young ears, an orchestra can seem like a giant melting pot of sound. And picking out which instrument is playing when is a rather tricky affair. Which is why Sergei…

Mr McFall’s Chamber - Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett

CLASSICAL Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Wed 19 Mar; Eastwood Park Theatre, Giffnock, Thu 27 Mar Whether playing to a packed hall or an empty one, musicians bond through the shared experience of being there and doing it together. When legendary piper…

Scottish Opera - Five:15

Think opera, and it’s usually think big. At 15 hours in total, for instance, the four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring are very definitely tipping the overblown end of the scale. Proving that the genre doesn’t always have to be of such towering…

Messiaen Centenary

One of the greatest figures of 20th century music, the French composer, organist and ornithologist, Olivier Messiaen was born in 1908. Celebrating his centenary, Edinburgh University, ECAT and the RSAMD collaborate with leading Messiaen scholar, Peter…

RNSO – Wagner’s The Ring, an Orchestral Adventure

CLASSICAL Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 23 Feb; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sun 24 Feb When, in the early 1980s, conductor Neeme Järvi left his Estonian homeland to work in the west, it didn’t go down too well with the powers that be. His name was…

Trilok Gurtu

CELTIC CONNECTIONS Trilok Gurtu may have begun his musical life in a family thoroughly steeped in the strict disciplines and formal cohesion of Indian classical music, but his own career has taken him into some of the most diverse world-jazz fusions…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

CLASSICAL City Halls, Glasgow Fri 18 Jan; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 19 Jan From the familiar tunes of Vivaldi’s pre-Christmas Four Seasons to four saxophones performing a brand new piece of music is quite a leap. Four is also the number of…

Brodsky Quartet

The internationally renowned Brodsky Quartet, who unfortunately had to postpone their performance as part of Edinburgh’s New Town Concerts series in November, are now happily rescheduled at the Queen’s Hall. In a wide-ranging programme that is typical…

Met Opera at the Cameo

Usually, a visit to a cinema is for film and a trip to an opera house is for, well, opera. Ripping apart the straitjacket of all of that is a relatively new venture that brings live opera direct from stage to the big screen. The stage is the New York…

Children’s Classic Concerts

CLASSICAL CONCERT Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 1 Dec; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 16 Dec He’s more at home behind the shop counter in Still Game, but this Christmas Sanjeev Kohli is branching out. Instead of hanging out with old boys Jack and…

Dunedin Consort – Buxtehude Anniversary Concert

ANNIVERSARY Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 18 Nov Composers’ anniversaries can be neat pegs upon which to hang concert programmes, with the added bonus that audiences hear music that otherwise might not get much of an airing. In the case of Dietrich…

Sarah Chang

GUEST PERFORMER Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 24 Oct Glasgow’s International Classical series has some impressive names attached to it this season. Alfred Brendel, Kurt Masur, Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano are just a few of those who are in…

Hitlist - The best classical & opera

• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Thursday Night Series Not long back in Glasgow from a tour to Prague, the orchestra stays in Czech mood for Dvorak’s richly melodic Symphony No 7. Nationalist sounds from closer to home are heard in Eddie McGuire’s…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Cl@six

Something different is on offer from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra this season as they embark upon a new series that makes concert-going incredibly easy. With a venue that could hardly be more central, a start time to coincide with the end of the…