Usher Hall Guide 2010

2010

Usher Hall concerts guide eif.co.uk/usherhall

“Mujer de Mucha Enagua” Pa’ ti Xicana (1999) Yreina D. Cervántez

Opening Concert

El Niño

by John Adams

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra James Conlon Conductor Edinburgh Festival Chorus National Youth Choir of Scotland Christopher Bell Chorus Master The miracle of the nativity is given new life in John Adams’s oratorio El Niño.

Conductor James Conlon leads a wonderful cast in this extraordinary opener for Festival 2010.

Friday 13 August 8.00pm Tickets from £10 (Returns only) eif.co.uk/opening Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Monday 13 September 7.00pm

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Photo: iStockPhoto.com

Rhapsodies in Red, White and Blue Royal Scottish National Orchestra Gunther Schuller Conductor Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus Timothy Dean Chorus Master Steven Osborne Piano Clarke Peters Narrator* Copland Lincoln Portrait* Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (original jazz band version) Ives Symphony No 4 The Festival goes Stateside for an evening of 20th century North American classics. American actor, singer, writer and director, Clarke Peters makes his Festival debut as The Narrator in Copland’s dramatic Lincoln Portrait.

Saturday 14 August 7.30pm Tickets from ÂŁ10 eif.co.uk/america

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Photo: Pekka Saarinen

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra: ‘ingenious, imaginative and explosive’ The Scotsman

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 01 Sakari Oramo Conductor Petra Lang Mezzo soprano Nielsen Overture, Helios Wagner Wesendonck Lieder Nielsen Symphony No 4 ‘The Inextinguishable’ Sakari Oramo and the FRSO bring some of Nielsen’s most lyrical works thrillingly to life. Petra Lang’s compelling, intuitive and insightful performance of the Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder will undoubtedly delight.

Sunday 15 August 8.00pm Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/frso1 Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Wednesday 15 September 7.00pm

02 Sakari Oramo Conductor Juha Uusitalo Bass baritone Wagner Overture, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Dutchman’s Monologue, Der fliegende Holländer; Wotan’s Farewell, Die Walküre Nielsen Symphony No 5 The Dutchman in Wagner’s Flying Dutchman has become a signature role for Finnish baritone Juha Uusitalo. Here he sings the Dutchman’s Monologue alongside Wotan’s emotive Farewell from Die Walküre.

Invigorating Baltic blasts characterise Carl Nielsen’s work. His Fifth Symphony depicts an immense struggle for supremacy between good and evil.

Monday 16 August 8.00pm Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/frso2

Photo: Roger Mastroianni

‘Welser-Möst drew the most magnificent colours and moods from the orchestra’ Telegraaf

Cleveland Orchestra 01 Franz Welser-Möst Conductor Joela Jones Organ Ives Variations on America (original version for organ) From the Steeples and Mountains Postlude in F Bruckner Symphony No 8 The first of two concerts by the mighty Clevelanders who perform works by iconoclastic Ives – now seen as the father of American music – and Bruckner’s lavish ‘Apocalyptic’ Eighth.

Tuesday 17 August 8.00pm

Supported by

Tickets from £10

Dunard Fund USA

eif.co.uk/cleveland02 Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Monday 20 September at 7.00pm

02 Franz Welser-Möst Conductor Laura Aikin Soprano Korngold Act II Prelude, Die tote Stadt Marietta’s Lied, Die tote Stadt Berg Lulu Suite Brahms Symphony No 2 in D Dynamic soprano Laura Aitkin joins the orchestra for the first 3 works in tonight’s concerts: Two extracts from Korngold’s lush 1920 opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead Town) and Berg’s ‘jazzy’ Suite from the opera Lulu.

Brahms’s idyllic Second Symphony completes this transatlantic evening.

Wednesday 18 August 8.00pm

Supported by

Tickets from £10

Dunard Fund USA

eif.co.uk/cleveland02

Photo: RNO

Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev Conductor Vadim Repin Violin Beethoven Overture, Coriolan Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No 15 The Russian National Orchestra’s impassioned strings, brilliant brass and passionate percussion combine to deliver a compelling and illuminating performance.

Thursday 19 August 8.00pm

Supported by

Tickets from ÂŁ10 (Returns only)

Dunard Fund USA

eif.co.uk/russian

Photo: Robbie Jack

Idomeneo

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Concert performance sung in Italian Idomeneo Kurt Streit Idamante Joyce DiDonato Ilia Rosemary Joshua Elettra Emma Bell Arbace Rainer Trost Sacerdote Keith Lewis Voce di Nettuno Jan Martiník Scottish Chamber Orchestra Sir Charles Mackerras Conductor Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus Gregory Batsleer Chorus Master Sir Charles Mackerras leads the SCO, its Chorus and an all star cast in a performance of Mozart’s masterpiece.

Friday 20 August 7.00pm

Supported by

Tickets from £10

The Binks Trust

eif.co.uk/idomeneo Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Saturday 18 September at 6.00pm

Photo: Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen

Kronos Quartet

Aleksandra Vrebalov …hold me, neighbor, in this storm…

Steve Reich Different Trains George Crumb Black Angels With a fearless drive to expand the range and context of the string quartet, the Kronos Quartet is one of the most celebrated and influential ensembles of today. This is chamber music on a grand scale – colourful, imaginative, provocative and sure to set the expansive acoustic of the Usher Hall ablaze.

Saturday 21 August 8.00pm Tickets from £8 eif.co.uk/kronos

Photo: Sheila Rock

Joyce DiDonato David Zobel Joyce DiDonato Mezzo soprano David Zobel Piano Joyce DiDonato is among the world’s most enchanting performers and her thrilling debut at the 2009 Festival wowed the audience. In this solo recital she performs works by Pergolesi, Caccini and Leoncavallo alongside repertoire by Beethoven and Rossini.

‘dazzlingly virtuosic’ San Francisco Chronicle

Sunday 22 August 8.00pm Tickets from £8 eif.co.uk/didonato Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Tuesday 14 September 7.00pm

Photo: Sussie Ahlburg

La fanciulla del West

by Giacomo Puccini

Concert performance sung in Italian Minnie Susan Bullock Dick Johnson Carl Tanner Jack Rance Juha Uusitalo Ashby Brindley Sherratt Nick Colin Judson Sonora Roland Wood Wowkle Louise Collett The Orchestra of Scottish Opera Francesco Corti Conductor Edinburgh Festival Chorus Christopher Bell Chorus Master Highly dramatic and brilliantly orchestrated La fanciulla del West is a fastmoving tale of love, jealousy, gambling, banditry and violence and their effect on a tight knit community.

Supported by Monday 23 August 7.00pm Tickets from ÂŁ10 eif.co.uk/scottishopera

The Stevenston Charitable Trust With additional support from

The Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh

Photo: Mark Harrison

The Sixteen

Concert performance sung in Italian Daniel Purcell The Masque of Hymen Henry Purcell Come, ye sons of art Henry Purcell The Indian Queen Gillian Keith Soprano Katherine Manley Soprano Robin Blaze Countertenor John Mark Ainsley Tenor Allan Clayton Tenor Roderick Williams Bass Harry Christophers Conductor Following the success of their performance of The Fairy Queen in 2009, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen return to delight Festival audiences in 2010 in a programme from the Purcell brothers.

Tuesday 24 August 8.00pm Tickets from ÂŁ10 eif.co.uk/sixteen

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Kronos Quartet Saturday 21 August 8.00pm eif.co.uk/kronos

Photo: Courtesy of Kronos Quartet

‘an extraordinary career of boundary-breaking discovery and innovation’ The New York Times

Photo: Drew Farrell

L’heure espagnole

by Maurice Ravel

Concert performance sung in French Chabrier Espagne Ibert Escales Ravel L’heure espagnole Concepcion Sophie Koch Ramiro Johannes Weisser Gonzalve Gordon Gietz Don Inigo Christopher Purves Torquemada Keith Lewis Royal Scottish National Orchestra Stéphane Denève Conductor Stéphane Denève leads the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and a wonderful cast in a programme that delights the ear in its affection for the colours and sonorous contours of all things Spanish.

Wednesday 25 August 7.30pm

Made possible by a legacy from

Tickets from £10

Ronald Alexander Miller Mackenzie, FRICS

eif.co.uk/rsno

Photo: Colin Robertson

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Gunther Schuller Conductor Tommy Smith Leader Joe Lovano Saxophone The SNJO performs music from jazz luminaries Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, plus Gil Evans’s arrangements of music from Porgy and Bess made famous in a recording by legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.

Joe Lovano: ‘It’s fair to say that he’s one of the greatest musicians in jazz history.’

The New York Times Tommy Smith: ‘brilliantly flexible and gorgeously melodic’ The Herald

Thursday 26 August 8.00pm Tickets from £8 eif.co.uk/snjo

Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Robin Ticciati Conductor Katia and Marielle Labèque Piano Rebel Les Elémens Kevin Volans Symphony: Daar Kom die Alibama (EIF commission, World Premiere) Poulenc Concerto for two pianos Bizet Symphony in C Virtuoso pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque bring their highly communicative style to Poulenc’s exciting Concerto for two pianos. Bizet’s stylish Symphony in C is characterised by brisk fanfares and rushing strings. Kevin Volans has incorporated African folk song into his new work, Symphony: Daar Kom die Alibama, commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival.

With support from

Donald and Louise MacDonald Friday 27 August 7.30pm Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/sco

Supported by

Photo: K. Miura

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles Conductor Midori Violin Stravinsky Concerto in E flat ‘Dumbarton Oaks’ Bernstein Serenade Dvorák Symphony No 9 ‘From the New World’ Virtuoso violinist Midori performs Bernstein’s Serenade which the composer himself described as a ‘series of related statements in praise of love’, and Dvorák’s lyrical New World Symphony was intended to celebrate the fourth centenary of Columbus’s ‘discovery’ of America.

Saturday 28 August 7.30pm Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/bbcsso

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Photo: Ann Marsden

Minnesota Orchestra Osmo Vänskä Conductor Alisa Weilerstein Cello Barber Music for a Scene from Shelley Elgar Cello Concerto Beethoven Symphony No 7 The Minnesota Orchestra ranks among America’s top symphonic ensembles. In 2003 Osmo Vänskä took over as musical director and has received high praise for his musicality and leadership.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was written in 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars and plainly reflects the circumstances in which it was written.

Dominated by monumentally grand themes Beethoven’s so-called gigantic symphony is among his most passionate and dramatic works.

Osmo Vänskä: ‘the most vivid Beethoven playing on the market’ The New Yorker

Sunday 29 August 7.30pm

Supported by

Tickets from £10

Dunard Fund USA

eif.co.uk/minnesota

Photo: Marco Borggreve

 ‘masterly cogency and riveting insight’ The Daily Telegraph

Lloyds TSB Scotland Inspiring Performances

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra 01 Mariss Jansons Conductor Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Berio 4 Dédicaces Stravinsky Firebird Suite (1945) A welcome return to the Festival for this great orchestra. The magical combination of the Concertgebouw, conductor Mariss Jansons and an eclectic and invigorating programme is sure to ignite.

Monday 30 August 8.00pm

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Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/rco1 Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Wednesday 22 September 7.00pm

02 Mariss Jansons Conductor Anna Larsson Mezzo soprano Edinburgh Festival Chorus Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus Christopher Bell Chorus Master Mahler Symphony No 3 Mahler’s monumental hymn to the natural world uses dynamic vocal forces to create one of the most exceptional symphonies in the repertoire.

Tuesday 31 August 8.00pm Tickets from £10 (Returns only) eif.co.uk/rco2

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Photo: Keith Saunders

Sydney Symphony Orchestra 01 Vladimir Ashkenazy Conductor Dene Olding Violin Elgar In the South Ross Edwards Maninyas – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Peter Sculthorpe Memento Mori Elgar Enigma Variations The eminent Russian-born conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy brings Australia’s premiere orchestra to Edinburgh for two Festival performances.

Two of Elgar’s most popular works sit alongside two modern works by Australian composers Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards.

Wednesday 1 September 7.30pm

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Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/sydney1

02 Vladimir Ashkenazy Conductor Hélène Grimaud Piano Sibelius Rakastava Ravel Piano Concerto in G Matthew Hindson Energy Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Suite Hélène Grimaud brings her formidable technique and finesse to Ravel’s jazzinspired piano concerto. Der Rosenkavalier is perhaps Strauss’s best loved opera. His Rosenkavalier Suite begins with the opera’s orchestral prelude, depicting the night of passion (vividly portrayed by whooping horns) between the two leading characters.

Thursday 2 September 7.30pm Tickets from £10 eif.co.uk/sydney2

Photo: Dario Acosta

Susan Graham Malcolm Martineau Susan Graham Mezzo soprano Malcolm Martineau Piano Now a firm Festival favourite, American mezzo soprano Susan Graham is one of the world’s foremost opera and recital stars. Tonight she performs a sumptuous programme of music by American composers alongside songs

by Mozart and Mahler. An evening of glorious vocal music-making.

Friday 3 September 8.00pm

With support from

Tickets from ÂŁ8

Frank Hitchman

eif.co.uk/graham Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 Tuesday 21 September 7.00pm

Mahler Symphony No 8 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles Conductor Edinburgh Festival Chorus Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus Christopher Bell Chorus Master Erin Wall Soprano Hillevi Martinpelto Soprano Nicole Cabell Soprano Katarina Karnéus Mezzo soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers Mezzo soprano Simon O’Neill Tenor Anthony Michaels-Moore Baritone John Relyea Bass Donald Runnicles leads the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a stellar cast of soloists, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus in Mahler’s heavenly Eighth Symphony.

Saturday 4 September 8.00pm Tickets from £10 (Returns only) eif.co.uk/mahler8 Recorded for future broadcast

by BBC Radio 3

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Book your Festival tickets! eif.co.uk 0131 473 2000

Young People and Students All young people under 18 and all students in full-time education are entitled to 50% discount on tickets across the Festival 2010 Usher Hall programme.

Standby tickets 50% off all tickets for senior citizens, unemployed people, Young Scot, Equity and MU card holders from 4 August 2010.

Access discounts Wheelchair users, people with severe mobility difficulties or with visual or hearing impairment will be sold seats/spaces at ÂŁ10 in the area of the venue most appropriate to their needs. Discount also applies to a companion. Dedicated access booking line 0131 473 2089.

Edinburgh International Festival Society is Scottish Charity (No SC004694) and is registered in Scotland (SC0247660) at The Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh EH1 2NE.

Front cover photo: Greg Helgeson