Belshazzar's Feast - Edinburgh Festival Guide

Belshazzar’s Feast

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

David Robertson Conductor

Neal Davies Baritone

Edinburgh Festival Chorus
Christopher Bell Chorus Master

Ives The Unanswered Question
Feldman Coptic Light
Walton Belshazzar’s Feast

The Festival’s concert programme concludes as it began: with grand, celebratory British choral music. Walton’s much-loved Belshazzar’s Feast is one of the composer’s most acclaimed pieces, telling of the Jews’ miraculous regaining of their freedom following the fall of the Babylonian King Belshazzar. Welsh-born baritone Neal Davies, a regular visitor to the Festival, takes the demanding solo part in a thrilling work full of rich orchestration and fiery climaxes.

American conductor David Robertson precedes Walton’s opulent oratorio with music by two of his pioneering compatriots. Ives’s The Unanswered Question is an enigmatic piece with a solo trumpet throwing out interrogations to the cosmos. The shimmering web of hushed sounds that forms Morton Feldman’s Coptic Light delights the ear with its luminous patterns of light and shade.

Saturday 1 September 8.00pm
Usher Hall
Tickets
£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hours 40 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/belshazzarsfeast

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