Edinburgh
The Iliad, Royal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghThursday, 28 April 2016
And so, it’s farewell to Mark Thomson with his final production as artistic director of Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, after 13 years in the job (incoming artistic director David Grieg unveils his new season next week). With Homer’s The Iliad, in a new... Read more... |
Atkins, SCO, Knussen, Queen's Hall, EdinburghMonday, 25 April 2016
Edinburgh audiences can, it has to be said, be frustratingly unadventurous. Which no doubt accounts for the relatively light turnout for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s quietly fizzing Queen’s Hall concert under conductor Oliver Knussen, three... Read more... |
Vavic, SCO, Bloch, Queen's Hall, EdinburghSunday, 17 April 2016
It’s not the first time that young French conductor Alexandre Bloch has been in front of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – he took them on a well-received short Scottish tour last summer. But it was his first main-season gig with the band, and he... Read more... |
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... |
