Music, Carol Main

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Cottier Chamber Project features some of Scotland’s favourite chamber ensembles

15 May 2013

Pavel Haas Quartet, Daniel’s Beard and Red Note Ensemble among programme highlights

Sometimes described as ‘the music of friends’, chamber music usually brings to mind small scale and intimate. No doubt that’s the case with individual performances in this year’s Cottier Chamber Project, but otherwise we’re talking big. Now in its third…

Composer Ilan Volkov presents the orchestral/experimental Tectonics Festival

16 Apr 2013

The festival's opening concert features works by Frank Denyer, David Fennessy and Charles Ross

For many, the idea of ‘orchestral music’ will bring to mind only the great classical symphonists like Mozart and Beethoven, or those who came along a little later, maybe Dvorak, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich. Taking a completely different look at…

New Scottish Opera production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman

18 Mar 2013

Opera relocated to Wagner's origianllocation of Scotland’s North East

If he hadn’t had such a keen eye for nifty marketing, Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman could have put Scotland as firmly on the geographic opera map as Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Both operas date from 1839, a time when Gothic…

The Colin Currie Group: Steve Reich – Drumming

19 Feb 2013

The Proms percussion group will perform the composer's piece as part of Minimal: Reich in Glasgow

Billed recently by the New York Times as ‘our greatest living composer’, Steve Reich is one of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. An artist who breaks down genre-specific music boundaries, Reich is the subject of Minimal…

Auricle Ensemble to give live airing to Aaron Copland's score for The City

25 Jan 2013

The piece was created as a soundtrack to Lewis Mumford's 1939 documentary of the same name

As New England rural idyll gives way to polluted, disease-ridden urban city life, with fumes and traffic everywhere, Aaron Copland’s score for The City is wonderfully evocative of the images portrayed on the big screen. When first seen, it wasn’t just…

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Christmas concerts across Scotland in 2012

18 Dec 2012

Carol concerts, choir recitals and Handel's Messiah

Christmas isn’t Christmas without carols. And, of course, The Messiah. That’s certainly what the evidence of this month’s listings would suggest. Carols by candlelight, carols for charity, carols with brass, orchestra, organ, carols for male choirs…

The Intoxicating Rose Garden: a performance adaptation of Persian poet Hafez

15 Nov 2012

Laurie Irvine, Jila Peacock, Michael Popper and Red Note Ensemble to perform score by Sally Beamish

Even the name of Sally Beamish’s latest score is something that sounds out of the ordinary. Delve further into what The Intoxicating Rose Garden is all about, and it’s clear that it is a new piece of work which is quite different from anything even the…

Scottish Opera: The Magic Flute - Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 19 Oct 2012

13 Nov 20124 stars

Industrial-themes production brings fun and vitality to Mozart’s well-loved score

First seen in 1791, in the latter years of the Age of Enlightenment, there is much in Scottish Opera’s new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute that brings its influence to mind. Right from the orchestral overture there is a sense of the excitement of new…

Glasgow's Minimal initiative to celebrate Estonian composer Arvo Pärt

18 Oct 2012

Part's Stabat Mater and Passio will be conducted by Paul Hillier

Now entering its third year, Glasgow Music’s groundbreaking Minimal initiative brings a weekend of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt to City Halls and Kelvingrove. His Stabat Mater will be heard one night, with Passio, a setting of the St John…

New BBC SSO airing of Tristan and Isolde to be conducted by Donald Runnicles

13 Sep 2012

The Edinburgh born conductor will be joined by Matthew Best, Nina Stemme and Nicky Spence

In Edinburgh born Donald Runnicles, Scotland is extremely fortunate to have one of the world’s finest Wagnerian conductors as a prime mover in the country’s musical midsts. Featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Chief Conductor…

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David et Jonathas, Festival Theatre, Mon 20 Aug

28 Aug 20124 stars

Psychological complexities of OT story brought to the fore in Andreas Homoki's musical feast of a pr

Musically, Les Arts Florissants’ David et Jonathas is a feast. French Baroque opera at its finest, Charpentier’s moving retelling of the biblical tragedy about two men who love each other - however that might be interpreted – is rooted in the most…

Zoe Strachan on The Lady from the Sea - interview

22 Aug 2012

The playwright is collaborating with Craig Armstrong on the production for Scottish Opera

Five years ago, Scottish Opera embarked on a brave new venture called Five:15. The plan was to put together contemporary Scottish writers and composers and commission them to come up with five new 15 minute long operas. Altogether, 15 short operas were…

National Youth Orchestra of Iraq to play in Glasgow Royal Conservatoire and Greyfriars Kirk

22 Aug 2012

17 year-old Iraqi founder Zuhal Sultan's project is realised in full glory

One of the most remarkable groups performing in Edinburgh this summer is the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. Born of the vision of young Iraqi pianist Zuhal Sultan to bring musicians of different ethnic backgrounds together in the aftermath of war…

Tantallon! These Lands This Wall set to be highlight of the Lammermuir Festival

22 Aug 2012

The classical music fest promises 'beautiful music in beautiful places'

'Beautiful music in beautiful places' is the strapline of East Lothian’s Lammermuir Festival and, actually, that pretty much sums it up. Delving further into just what that means reveals some pretty phenomenal venues and programmes that can only be…

Kronos Quartet perform Sun Rings in Glasgow

25 Jun 2012

Space-themed Terry Riley piece performed outside new Riverside Museum

As London gears up for the Olympics, Scots may feel a million miles away from any sporting events, but culture is another matter. As part of the London 2012 festival celebrations, Glasgow Music is programming what promises to be one of the most…

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Cottier Chamber Project set for West End Festival 2012

22 May 2012

Hebrides Ensemble, Scottish Ensemble and Red Note also on bill

Classical music always has a strong presence at Glasgow’s West End Festival these days, but this year is extraordinary. Not only does the Cottier Chamber Project make a big-style return visit with small-scale music, but no less than nine choirs form…

Scottish Opera revive Besch's celebrated Tosca adaptation

25 Apr 2012

The new production stars Susannah Glanville and José Ferrero

Described as a ‘shabby little shocker’ by one of America’s leading musicologists, Puccini’s Tosca has been a success with audiences the world over since its premiere in Rome in 1900. From the countless productions of it, one which has had particularly…

SE Inversion – Travelling against time

27 Mar 2012

The Scottish Ensembles latest show starts with 1960s modern classical music and works back to Bach

Moving back in time is something more usually found in the world of science fiction than classical music performances. Putting its audience into a time machine where the concert hall takes on the role of tardis for the night, the Scottish Ensemble…

SMC to host Composition Marathon

8 Mar 2012

Event at the Scottish Music Centre to feature performances from Daniel's Beard, Pure Brass and more

To commission ten composers at the same time to write a new work each is quite an undertaking. To ask them all to do it in the space of only twelve hours could be verging on insanity, especially as none of the ten will have an inkling of which…

Hansel and Gretel

27 Jan 2012

RSNO and Scottish Opera in new translation of opera

Irish soprano Ailish Tynan is proving a hit with Scottish audiences. After joining the RSNO for a highly successful Viennese New Year, she’s now back to Glasgow and Edinburgh to work with Scottish Opera, taking the role of Gretel in their brand new…

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New Year in Vienna and A Viennese New Year

13 Dec 2011

Austrian-themed classical concerts by the SCO and RSNO

What would New Year music be without Vienna? No matter how many times orchestras sail up and down the Beautiful Blue Danube, pop the corks in the Champagne Polka or waltz their way through the overture to Die Fledermaus, audiences flock to hear their…

The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concerts to focus on the Baltic Renaissance

16 Nov 2011

Music by composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür to feature

While the phrase ‘it’s Baltic’ is usually heard in relation to Scotland’s freezing temperatures, this winter it can be applied to something a bit warmer. The Scottish Ensemble’s traditionally candlelit concerts home in on the Baltic nations and music by…

Emily Doolittle, Rody Gorman and Paragon Ensemble - Songs of Seals

21 Oct 2011

Canadian composer, Gaelic poet and Glasgow group collaboration

We all love to see their inquisitive friendly faces around many of Scotland’s coastal waters, but how many people have heard seals singing? Can they actually sing? According to the Canadian composer with the wonderfully apt name of Emily Doolittle…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra present parent and baby concerts

14 Sep 2011

Big Ears, Little Ears series brings Beethoven to daytime slot

It’s never too young to start listening to music, but for the babies, toddlers and their parents who want more than ‘Twinkle Twinkle’, the live orchestral experience isn’t one usually on offer. Putting that to rights is the Scottish Chamber Orchestra…

Scottish Opera take new work on tour

24 Aug 2011

Triple bill of satire and Greek mythology

Scottish Opera goers are spoiled for choice in early September as the company puts on no less than three different productions in the space of just over a week with one of them, Orpheus in the Underworld, then heading off on tour all around Scotland.