Edinburgh
Rusalka, Scottish OperaFriday, 15 April 2016
For the gentleman next to me in the Festival Theatre, this was his second outing to see Rusalka. At the production premiere earlier this month in Glasgow, he had been “blown away” by Dvořák's lyric masterpiece. Given half a chance, I would go back... Read more... |
Osborne, RSNO, Denève, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 10 April 2016
“Bon soir, good evening! Nice to see you! To see you...” Four years after bidding an emotional farewell to the Usher Hall, the Gallic charmer is back, maybe slightly stouter, with a tinge of grey in a new beard, the great mop of curly red hair as... Read more... |
I Am Thomas, Royal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghSaturday, 26 March 2016
"Thomas Aikenhead – who the fuck are you?" So goes the refrain to the opening number of I Am Thomas, a boisterous co-production between London’s Told by an Idiot, and the National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre north of the... Read more... |
Royal, Wood, SCO, Spanjaard, Usher Hall, EdinburghFriday, 18 March 2016
I expect that there will be a sense of mild disappointment within the ranks of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that its great Brahms season did not come to quite the conclusion intended. As readers will know from last week’s review of the Fourth... Read more... |
The Destroyed Room, Traverse Theatre, EdinburghFriday, 11 March 2016
Seldom can the suggestion of a post-show discussion have seemed so… well, unappealing is probably the polite way of putting it. Because discussion is precisely what Glasgow-based theatre company Vanishing Point’s devastating new show The Destroyed... Read more... |
Ibragimova, SCO, Krivine, Usher Hall, EdinburghFriday, 11 March 2016
It was to have been the culmination of principal conductor Robin Ticciati’s Brahms symphony cycle with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. But with Ticciati laid up with a herniated disc, we’re told, it fell to the SCO’s principal guest conductor... Read more... |
Williams, Janiczek, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Queen's Hall, EdinburghFriday, 04 March 2016
Just a few days earlier, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra had been doing a pretty convincing impression of a symphony orchestra in a powerful Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony under John Storgårds. And here they were, in crisp, nimble Mozart and... Read more... |
Giltburg, RSNO, Prieto, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 28 February 2016
To a freezing grey night in Scotland’s capital, the conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto brought a welcome ray of Mexican sunshine. Wearing a broad grin he marched onto the platform of the Usher Hall and launched into Rodion Shchedrin’s impish Concerto... Read more... |
Giordano, SCO, Mendez, Queen's Hall, EdinburghFriday, 22 January 2016
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven: it’s a while since I have heard the Scottish Chamber Orchestra play such an essentially classical programme on its home turf, the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. Recent reviews have focused on concerts in the much more... Read more... |
The Weir, Royal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghThursday, 21 January 2016
Since its unveiling at London’s Royal Court in 1997, Conor McPherson’s The Weir has become something of a modern classic, notching up dozens of productions worldwide and even winning inclusion in the National Theatre’s list of the 100 most... Read more... |
Mitchell, Atkins, Johnston, Queen's Hall, EdinburghTuesday, 19 January 2016
It was a simple yet beautifully elegant way for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to kick off its 2016 chamber concerts: a recital for flute, viola and harp, with Debussy’s beguiling Sonata as the centrepiece, and other contrasting music for the same... Read more... |
The Story of Scottish Art, BBC FourThursday, 14 January 2016
“Finding the Light”, the second episode of this four-part series, took us to the period when Scottish intellectuals led the world in innovative and revolutionary thinking, Edinburgh’s neo-classical architecture in the leafy streets of the New Town... Read more... |
