Music, Classical within 5 miles of Edinburgh

World Premiere: Travelling salesman and sole breadwinner for his family, Gregor Samsa awakes one day to discover that he has been transformed into a giant insect. Unable to communicate and shocking to anyone who sees him, he is forced into a solitary existence confined to his room. As he becomes insufferable to himself…

Cello star Matthew Barley presents a characteristically immersive musical experience: Benjamin Britten's Third Cello Suite and solo cello works by Tavener, Dai Fujikura, James MacMillan and Jan Bang, with specially commissioned animated visuals from Yeast Culture.

The young vocal group sings sacred works by Purcell and his contemporaries: John Blow, Matthew Locke and Pelham Humfrey.

For 40 years, the Meadows Chamber Orchestra has been one of the leading amateur orchestras in Scotland.

The Meridian Ensemble present's a selection of French, Russian and British classical music for piano, violin and clarinet.

Internationally renowned violinist Midori brings two concerts to this year’s Festival, offering a fresh perspective on one of the greatest collections of music in the violin repertoire. With their colossal ambition, intellectual intensity and huge emotional scope, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas stand at the pinnacle of solo…

Acclaimed for her astonishingly assured performances while still a child, the Japanese-American violinist Midori is now internationally celebrated for the dignified concentration of her playing. She begins the second of her two Festival recitals, contrasting Bach’s seminal Sonatas and Partitas with contemporary violin…

A poet of the piano, Mitsuko Uchida is famed for playing that matches elegance and poise with mercurial excitement. Her Festival recital combines gentle lyricism and explosive virtuosity. To begin, she contrasts two luminous Preludes and Fugues from the second book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier with Schoenberg’s…

The modern piano is as different from Mozart’s piano as a Mercedes from a horsedrawn carriage. But what effect did changes in the instrument have on the music written for it? Concert pianist Kenneth Hamilton, Professor of Music at Cardiff University, offers insights into three centuries of music at the keyboard. Chaired…

The Arditti Quartet’s acclaimed founding violinist, Irvine Arditti and Margaret Faultless, worldrenowned specialist in historical performance practice, discuss string playing techniques past and present in the company of BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service.

Period performance has been famously dubbed ‘the most modern sound around’. Clarinettist and Director of the Royal College of Music Professor Colin Lawson discusses the value of using period instruments today with Alexander Hayward of National Museums Scotland.

The Chamber are joined by guests Cyril Garac (violin) and Maria Martinova (piano) for this exploration of Baltic musical styles. Featuring Finnish tango, Estonian minimalism and Scandinavian piano and strings.

Young Baroque ensemble plays music by Handel and Telemann.

An all-Mozart programme exploring the composer’s glorious music for wind ensemble, performed by the outstanding period-instrument group Nachtmusique. The ensemble is drawn from Europe’s most respected wind players, and brings its concert to a resounding conclusion with one of the most virtuostic and high-spirited works in…

Sonatas by Poulenc, Brahms and Rachmaninov performed by Mikhail Nemtsov (cello) and Elena Nemtsova (piano).

The New Edinburgh Orchestra was founded in 1994 and performs three concerts a year.

Playing four classics from the chamber repertoire on the same number of historical clarinets, Australian-born Nicola Boud reveals how instrument design influenced the course of music, and vice versa. Joined by a group of international period players, she performs the sparkling ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio, one of the masterpieces…

Moscow-born pianist Nikolai Lugansky has been praised for both the reflective poetry and the blazing virtuosity of his commanding performances, and he explores both of these qualities in his wideranging recital. Admired as one of the world’s foremost Rachmaninov interpreters, Lugansky tackles a selection of the composer’s…

The Latvian-born pianist plays Schubert, Mozart and Rachmaninov with music by composers from her homeland, Peteris Vasks and Rihards Dubra.

European Premiere: After receiving a 2010 Herald Angel Award for Songs of Ascension, US composer, singer, filmmaker and theatre artist Meredith Monk returns to the Festival with her latest music-theatre work, On Behalf of Nature. A poetic meditation on the environment, On Behalf of Nature evokes the Buddhist notion of…

The 2013 Festival opens in thrilling fashion as three great Russian musicians join the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a pair of seminal masterpieces by Prokofiev. Conductor Valery Gergiev is world-renowned for his searing, powerful interpretations, and young, multi-award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov astonished…

Blending sensuality with a searching intellectual rigour, French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard has swiftly established himself as one of the world’s truly great keyboard players, especially prized for his rich, penetrating performances of 20th-century music. Following his two late-night concerts in The Hub, in this…

As a prelude to his Queen’s Hall recital on 23 August, renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard takes up residence in The Hub for two late-night concerts celebrating the intoxicating new sound worlds that cutting-edge technology has brought to piano music. Italian composer Marco Stroppa’s dramatic Traiettoria…