Edinburgh
Benedetti, Kanneh-Mason, Grosvenor, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - gorgeous textures, starry soloistsMonday, 29 May 2023
What’s better than having a star soloist on the billing for a concert? Three star soloists! The Royal Scottish National Orchestra billed this concert as its “All Star Gala”, and that’s more than just a shrewd marketing move (though it was that: this... Read more... |
Anna Karenina, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh review - nimble, sweary staging of Tolstoy's iconic novelSaturday, 20 May 2023
How do you cram a thousand-page novel, a cast of dozens and profound philosophical ponderings on love, fidelity, class and freedom into a two-and-a-half hour stage show? If you’re Lesley Hart – adapter of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina at Edinburgh’s... Read more... |
Ein Deutsches Requiem, SCO, Emelyanychev, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - immaculate, but lacking soulWednesday, 17 May 2023
From the outset, it was clear that this would be a performance of immaculate sonic architecture. Over a soft, deep, and breathy organ pedal the first utterings of the strings sounded tentative, almost improvised, like an artist making the first... Read more... |
Goosby, RSNO, Bringuier, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - lyrical colour and dynamic brillianceThursday, 27 April 2023
When a publication as venerable as Gramophone features an artist on its front cover, it’s a surefire sign that they’ve hit the big time. This month that honour fell to young American violinist Randall Goosby and, coincidentally, he was the soloist... Read more... |
Osborne, RSNO, Chan, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - cinematic sweep and surging dramaTuesday, 21 March 2023
Two women featured prominently in this programme; the one a composer and the other a conductor.To the composer first. Long before she hit New York big time, Anna Clyne was at Edinburgh University, so there’s a strong link with Scotland that the... Read more... |
Amidon, Clayton, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - profuse and outstanding musicianshipSaturday, 18 March 2023
On paper, the formula shouldn’t be that special. Really good music played by really good people is hardly a groundbreaking concept; but in actuality it’s seldom found with such honesty and diversity as in Pekka Kuusisto’s recent residency with the... Read more... |
Pritchin, Emelyanychev, SCO Soloists, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - chamber music at its most thrillingTuesday, 28 February 2023
After full orchestral performances of Brahms’s Violin Concerto and First Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra shone a more intimate light on the composer’s oeuvre with a recital of chamber works in Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on Sunday.Having made... Read more... |
Macbeth (an undoing), Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh - audacious update of the Scottish playMonday, 13 February 2023
You’d hardly call a director particularly perceptive for highlighting Lady Macbeth as the true power behind the throne, scheming and cajoling her husband’s bloody ascent to the crown. In her audacious, provocative and thoroughly compelling Macbeth (... Read more... |
Esfahani, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - music meets machineWednesday, 12 October 2022
This was one of those rare occasions when a somewhat diverse collection of pieces knits together into a rather satisfying programme. To start at the end, the Saint-Saëns “Organ” Symphony is a rumbustious crowd pleaser not least because of its... Read more... |
Saul, The English Concert, Butt, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - properly exciting music dramaFriday, 26 August 2022
It’s not an opera, of course, but of all Handel’s oratorios, Saul is probably the one that is best suited to being presented as an actual drama. Several productions, most notably Barrie Kosky's at Glyndebourne, have shown how it can work on stage,... Read more... |
Pavel Haas Quartet, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - a scorching team on top formFriday, 26 August 2022
This is the Pavel Haas Quartet’s second visit to a Scottish festival this summer. They were among the stars of the East Neuk Festival at the start of July, and they were every bit as scorching in this Edinburgh International Festival concert.The... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 review: The StonesMonday, 22 August 2022
In many ways, The Stones is what the Fringe is all about: a new theatre company (London-based Signal House); a single actor; a small black-box space; just a chair, a bit of smoke and some almost imperceptible lighting changes for a staging. And with... Read more... |
