Edinburgh Festival
Verdi's Requiem / Capriccio, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - words, music, judgementTuesday, 27 August 2024
The Philharmonia’s residency was the centrepiece of the Edinburgh International Festival’s final weekend, and it’s right that the orchestra should be the focus because they were consistently the finest thing about both their Verdi Requiem and their... Read more... |
Fire in my mouth, Philharmonia, NYCOS, Alsop, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - total work of art for our timesSaturday, 24 August 2024
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 2018, Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth is a multi-sensory oratorio written to commemorate the 146 workers who perished in a factory fire in what was the deadliest industrial disaster in New... Read more... |
Le nozze di Figaro, Komische Oper Berlin, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - great singing wastedTuesday, 20 August 2024
I’m all in favour of the EIF taking artistic risks, and of them bringing a high-prestige international production to Edinburgh. This Marriage of Figaro from Berlin’s Komische Oper is both of those things, because it is the first production by Kirill... Read more... |
Altstaedt, EUYO, Noseda, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - inclusive and brilliantMonday, 19 August 2024
People hold lots of different opinions about the European Union, but there’s really only one acceptable opinion to be held about the European Union Youth Orchestra; namely, that they’re brilliant. Their visit to the Edinburgh International Festival... Read more... |
Bostridge, Osborne, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - the heights and the abyssFriday, 16 August 2024
When you stop to think about it, Schwanengesang is a pretty ridiculous thing. Schubert’s final song cycle was famously put together by his publishers after his death, and so it’s barely a cycle at all. Therefore, unlike Die schöne Müllerin and... Read more... |
Oedipus Rex, Scottish Opera, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - beautifully uncomplexWednesday, 14 August 2024
Immersive opera such as this can be tricky to pull off, but the magic of Roxana Haines’s new production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex lies in its simplicity, letting the material organically weave around the audience without overcomplications or... Read more... |
Bamberg SO, Hrůša / Up Late at the Hub, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - death, life and points in betweenMonday, 12 August 2024
When you’re running a three-concert residency, you can afford to take a few repertoire risks, to programme a few things that might be close to your heart but which won’t pack in the punters.That must be the reason why the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’... Read more... |
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela / Llewellyn, Lepper, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - scorching energy and deep tendernessFriday, 09 August 2024
The Queen’s Hall isn’t going to know what has hit it after the opening weekend of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. What’s usually the festival’s demure home of chamber music – string quartets, piano trios and so on – was still... Read more... |
Bach/Mendelssohn St Matthew Passion / First Night at the Hub, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - a reimagining and a joyous celebrationThursday, 08 August 2024
When I first started attending the Edinburgh International Festival in the 1990s, the Opening Concert (capitals intentional) was a grand Usher Hall affair on a Sunday evening; a central work of the western classical tradition to set the festival... Read more... |
La Pasión según San Marcos / Carmen, Opéra Comique, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - united in story and songMonday, 05 August 2024
Trouble. Overly honest. Too opinionated. Ultimately get killed for refusing to let go of their principles and kowtowing to the status quo. I didn’t ever expect myself to be writing about the similarities between Carmen and Jesus Christ, but... Read more... |
Isidore Quartet / Mao Fujita, Edinburgh International Festival 2023 - carefree beauty and improvisatory flairTuesday, 29 August 2023
The Edinburgh International Festival’s Queen’s Hall series ended with two very impressive debuts. Thursday morning brought the Isidore Quartet, who winningly, if slightly naively, told us that Edinburgh had a similar energy to their native New York.... Read more... |
Tannhäuser, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Edinburgh International Festival 2023 - compelling concert WagnerSaturday, 26 August 2023
This was one of the more strait-laced concert performances, with few concessions to Wagner’s underlying stage drama. The soloists were in formal concert dress, strung out in a line at the front of the stage, with interaction between them limited to... Read more... |
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