Music, Classical

A show of force - Edinburgh Military Tattoo

22 Jul 2008

A festival spectacle global in design is this year’s The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which prepares once again to set its stall on the esplanade under the impressive backdrop of Edinburgh Castle, as it showcases the best military musicians from around…

Bittersweet symphony - Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Brecht and Weill’s Mahagonny has inspired an artistic generation. Neil Cooper analyses the pair’s enduring appeal.

Edinburgh Fringe - LGBT Highlights

17 Jul 2008

Allan Radcliffe selects the best the Fringe has to offer in comedy, theatre and music

Best of the rest - Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Giselle. Under the artistic direction of Nina Ananiashvili, the State Ballet of Georgia will be performing what many view as the definitive interpretation of this romantic ballet. Gabriela Montero Two performances here from the superb Venezuelan…

Sound offering - sound 2008 Festival

17 Jul 2008

It might be all quiet in the Central Belt, but the cultural flurry up North continues this fortnight with the launch of sound 2008, which sets its musical stall in Aberdeen this October. Now in its fourth year, the multi-genre festival will feature two…

Scottish Opera: Falstaff

8 May 2008

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…

Messiaen 100

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Celebrating a centenary with intimate recitals and orchestral drama. As a composer he was the epitome of innovation; as a musician he could move a room to silent awe. That the EIF is choosing to celebrate the centenary of Olivier Messiaen as part of its…

Regal king size - Król Roger

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Fitting neatly into the EIF’s theme of Artists Without Borders, the majestic Król Roger opens up audiences to an innovative collaboration. Carol Main chats to Festival director Jonathan Mills about the opera’s arrival in the city. Listening to a…

Edinburgh International Festival programme unveiled

2 Apr 2008

This year’s Edinburgh International Festival will take the changes and challenges facing contemporary Europe as its theme, it was announced today. Highlights of the programme include the world premiere of Matthew Bourne’s new dance work ‘Dorian…

Cappella Nova - Voices of Scotland

3 Jul 2008

CLASSICAL St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Fri 4 Jul A fascinating concert of sung Scottish texts from the 6th to the 16th centuries seems the ideal way to close an international conference on the language and literature of Scotland in mediaeval and…

RSNO: Video Games Live

19 Jun 2008

Last year in the UK, videogames overtook the music industry in terms of money made and it looks like the film industry could be next. But today’s gaming technology is working in tandem with these industries in interesting new ways, making cut-scenes…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: orchestra+

5 Jun 2008

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…

Sarah Chang

18 Oct 2007

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…

Second Life to host first online symphonic concert

14 Aug 2007

The virtual world Second Life has added another string to its bow of real-life pursuits, with plans to stage a full scale symphonic concert on the site. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has created a virtual version of its concert hall in which it will…

National Youth Choir of Scotland

3 Jul 2007

CHORAL CONCERTS While the professional outfits take a summer break, it’s the turn of Scotland’s musical youth to take to the stage. First off on the round of summer courses, concerts and tours is the National Youth Choir of Scotland. In preparation…

Children's Classical Concerts

Children's Classical Concerts</h3>

17 Oct 2006

CLASSICAL MUSIC Whether it’s the latest picture book by Julia Donaldson or a juicy storyline in EastEnders, we all love a good yarn. Young or old, a well-told narrative always hits the spot, but there are as many ways of delivering a story as there…

Music at Paxton

17 Jul 2008

Established just a couple of years ago, Music at Paxton hasn’t taken long to realise its ambition of presenting high quality chamber music, whether home-grown or from further afield, within the impressive splendour of Paxton House, just outside…

Hebrides Ensemble - Olivier Messiaen – Chamber Works

3 Jul 2008

CLASSICAL (Linn Records) The Hebrides Ensemble are now firmly established as Scotland’s leading contemporary music group, and their stock is rising well beyond their native turf as well. The enthusiastic acclaim for their recent imaginative Wigmore…

Misterstourworm and the Kelpie’s Gift

5 Jun 2008

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: Finale! Brilliant Benedetti

24 Apr 2008

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…

The Teak Project

10 Apr 2008

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 Chamber Orchestra - Mozart Symphonies 38–41

28 Feb 2008

CLASSCIAL (Linn Records) There are some partnerships that just work. The SCO’s collaboration with conductor Sir Charles Mackerras is one of them. Not that it doesn’t have to be worked at. Having done so over many years, their partnership has matured…

RNSO – Wagner’s The Ring, an Orchestral Adventure

14 Feb 2008

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…

Met Opera at the Cameo

13 Dec 2007

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…

Classical hitlist - the best classical music

4 Oct 2007

The Scottish Ensemble: Passionate Romantics Starting their winter season with the fire of passion and romance, the SE play the luscious, but infrequently aired Chausson Concert for violin, piano and strings. A great success when first performed, its…

Public to vote for RSNO performance

7 Sep 2007

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra will allow the public to vote for a concert programme for the first time, as the company looks to broaden its appeal. One of the five concerts for Scotland’s national orchestra upcoming Classic Bites season will…

Gürzenich Orchestra

Carol Main

23 Aug 2007

Of all the orchestras appearing at the Festival, there is none with a more impressive pedigree than the Gürzenich from Germany. Mahler, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Brahms and Stravinsky all wrote for and conducted this orchestra, whose Cologne roots stretch…

La Didone

19 Jul 2007

For over 30 years, the most unlikely elements have been combined in the Wooster Group’s work. Everything from creaky old B-movies to cutting edge technology have been spliced together to create arresting pieces of theatre.

* Hitlist (Classical)

Hitlist

26 Apr 2007

The Sixteen: Music from the Sistine Chapel The seventh choral pilgrimage of this outstanding group of 16 singers takes the Renaissance music of the Papal chapels as its inspiration. The sumptuous sounds of Allegri’s famous Miserere forms the centrepiece…

Sally Matthews and Toby Spence

3 Jan 2007

VISITING VOCALISTS As Scotland’s various concert promoters revive themselves in the wake of the festive season, two organisations - totally coincidentally - choose to start the new year with stars from the younger generation of British singers. Tenor…

Classical hitlist

Hitlist

12 Oct 2006

Mr McFall’s Chamber Tribute to piper and fiddle player Martyn Bennett, who was a great friend of the group up until his death a year and a half ago. His hallmark combinations of electronic bass lines and beats with folk tunes, whether original or…

Classical hitlist

The best opera and classical music

28 Sep 2006

Paragon Ensemble: Loony Tunes (pictured) Another first for Paragon as they give the UK premiere of Lyell Cresswell’s Of Whirlwind Underground which depicts Prometheus’ efforts to steal fire from the gods and his resulting punishment at the hands of the…

Opera Unwrapped returns

10 Apr 2008

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 Ensemble: Essential Ensemble

10 Apr 2008

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.

Peter & The Wolf

13 Mar 2008

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…

Scottish Opera - Five:15

28 Feb 2008

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…

Trilok Gurtu

31 Jan 2008

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…

Brodsky Quartet

4 Jan 2008

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…

Children’s Classic Concerts

29 Nov 2007

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

15 Nov 2007

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…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Cl@six

4 Oct 2007

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…

Benedetti adds new string to her bow

25 Sep 2007

Classical violinist Nicola Benedetti is promoting her third album, which the 20-year-old from Ayrshire describes as “emotional, tuneful and atmospheric”. The Ayrshire musician has released her interpretation of pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams and…

Hitlist - The best classical & opera

20 Sep 2007

• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Thursday Night Series The opening concert of the BBC SSO’s new series is inspired by heavenly bodies, centred on Holst’s everlastingly vivid portraits of The Planets, one of the most popular pieces of classical music…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

20 Sep 2007

NEW SEASON Classic Bites, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 21 Sep; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 22 Sep; Opening Concert, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 28 Sep; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 29 Sep The leaves on the trees are starting to…

Conductor stepping down from Scottish Symphony Orchestra

19 Sep 2007

The chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will step down from the post in September 2009. Ilan Volkov, who was chosen to head the company aged just 26, will pursue a freelance career with the likes of the Washington Symphony and…

Christine Brewer

23 Aug 2007

As comfortable chatting about American Idol as she is arias, Christine Brewer is swift to dispel any notion of the opera diva. Indeed, from the moment she burst onto the stage as a teenager with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Brewer knew she had…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

23 Aug 2007

On stage at the start of this year’s Edinburgh Festival and back at the Usher Hall for its penultimate night, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra have three Glasgow dates that are equally unmissable before returning to Edinburgh with their winter…

Tschaikowsky (And Other Russians)

23 Aug 2007

Armed with a truckload of sheet music, some forgotten musical gems and a biting Jewish wit, Mark Nadler is like a male Barbra Streisand on speed. Opening with the Kurt Weill/Ira Gershwin song ‘Tschaikowsky’, featuring the unpronounceable names of 49…

Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610

16 Aug 2007

While Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo occupies Festival pole position, there is plenty more on the programme from the great Renaissance-Baroque transitionalist Italian. Five concerts of madrigals make up what EIF director Jonathan Mills calls ‘the sketch book’. As…

L’Orfeo

9 Aug 2007

‘Festivals are a sort of personal odyssey,’ says EIF director Jonathan Mills, ‘like a pilgrimage or rite of passage, where you can learn about yourself.’ In programming his first Festival, Mills also threw down a personal gauntlet, meeting the challenge…