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The lyrical Lieder performances of acclaimed German tenor Werner Güra take listeners on a spiritual and emotional journey. His glowing voice’s remarkable shadings only add to his dramatic yet subtlevocal.deliveries.
With pianist Christoph Berner, Güra begins his concert with songs of love and longing by Beethoven, from the highly personal song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the distant beloved’) to expressions of bittersweet desire in Wonne der Wehmut and An die Hoffnung.
After the interval, Güra brings together a selection of Schubert Lieder to convey the life, loves and losses of a Romantic hero, from the youthful Schlummerlied and Ganymed to the moving Willkommenund Abschied.
‘Güra, outstanding in his unfussy, intense delivery, is a formidable, rousing guide.’ The Guardian
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Friday 16 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/gura-berner
 
 

Virgin Money Fireworks Concert
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Garry Walker  ConductorMusorgsky  Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
Join the city of Edinburgh in a celebration of summer festivals, inspirational music and breathtaking pyrotechnics as the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert brings the Edinburgh International Festival to a resplendent conclusion.
Set against the magnificent backdrop of Edinburgh’s iconic Castle, the evening brings together the stirring playing of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with a thrilling concert-long fireworks display, specially choreographed to enhance the musical experience.
This year’s centrepiece is Musorgsky’s dazzling orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition. Its vivid musical depictions of Russian paintings, conveyed in virtuoso playing and barnstorming brass fanfares, are the perfect match for an astonishing display of pyrotechnics.
Visit eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks for up-to-the-minute news, features and advice on how to make the best of your evening at the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert.
Please note that there are special ticket sales arrangements for this event.
Sunday 1 September 9.00pm
TicketsRoss Theatre (seated) £27.50Princes Street Gardens (standing) £12.50, priority entry £17.50
45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks
Sponsored byVirgin Money

Virgin Money Fireworks Concert
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Garry Walker  ConductorMusorgsky  Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
Join the city of Edinburgh in a celebration of summer festivals, inspirational music and breathtaking pyrotechnics as the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert brings the Edinburgh International Festival to a resplendent conclusion.
Set against the magnificent backdrop of Edinburgh’s iconic Castle, the evening brings together the stirring playing of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with a thrilling concert-long fireworks display, specially choreographed to enhance the musical experience.
This year’s centrepiece is Musorgsky’s dazzling orchestral showpiece Pictures at an Exhibition. Its vivid musical depictions of Russian paintings, conveyed in virtuoso playing and barnstorming brass fanfares, are the perfect match for an astonishing display of pyrotechnics.
Visit eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks for up-to-the-minute news, features and advice on how to make the best of your evening at the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert.
Please note that there are special ticket sales arrangements for this event.
Sunday 1 September 9.00pm
TicketsRoss Theatre (seated) £27.50Princes Street Gardens (standing) £12.50, priority entry £17.50
45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks
Sponsored byVirgin Money

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen return to the Festival to perform magnificent vocal repertoire by Handel. Internationally acclaimed Handelian and Festival favourite Rosemary Joshua joins as soloist for the cantata Silete venti. The concert concludes with perhaps Handel’s best-loved choral work, his uplifting Dixit Dominus. ‘sang with the same combination of talent and unbridled joy that has earned them worldwide fame.’ The Guardian‘ a tiny soundbite of Heaven’ The Times Sponsored by Classic FM

The internationally renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra makes a two-concert visit to the Festival under chief conductor Mariss Jansons, acclaimed for his blistering performances and for his cultured interpretations that shine fresh light on major classical works.
Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony is one of the composer’s best-loved creations, a moving piece on the theme of forbidden love whose grand, sweeping melodies are full of emotional turbulence and impassioned suffering.
By way of contrast, before the interval Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto shows the composer at his most luminous and lyrical, and its atmosphere of serene contemplation is the ideal setting for the poiseand grace of Mitsuko Uchida’s exquisite pianism.
‘one of the most cultivated orchestral sounds in Europe’ The Guardian
Sunday 11 August 7.30pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hour 40 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/tchaikovsky6
Sponsored by Capital Solutions

Best known from David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter, Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is one of the most beloved works in the orchestral repertoire, a masterpiece of poignant nostalgia and glittering bravura, brimming over with unforgettable melodies.
It launches the Russian National Orchestra’s two concerts celebrating Russian music at this year’s Festival, under the conductor who founded the ensemble in 1990, Mikhail Pletnev. Soloist Nikolai Lugansky returns after last year’s spectacular recital with violinist Leonidas Kavakos, his fizzing technique and suave elegance an ideal match for the Concerto’s dazzling demands.
Pletnev concludes the concert with Glazunov’s opulent ballet score The Seasons, a lush evocation of the passing of the Russian year, with vivid depictions of frost, spring winds, ripening corn and falling autumn.leaves.
‘Pletnev evokes music with the RNO which satisfi es the appetite and leaves you breathless.’ Kölnische Rundschau
Monday 19 August 7.30pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/rno1
Supported by Dunard Fund

Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky, widely acclaimed for his performances of Rachmaninov’s piano music, brings the passionate, fiery Third Concerto to the Russian National Orchestra’s second Festival concert.
It is considered one of the most technically challenging concertos in the repertoire, combining astonishing virtuosity with passages of luminous lyricism. Lugansky’s previous performances and recordings of the Concerto have earnt him widespread admiration for his immaculate technique and glittering pianistic brilliance.
Mikhail Pletnev brings his powerful Russian-themed concerts to a resounding conclusion with the First Symphony by Russian composer and visionary Alexander Scriabin, a transcendental piece whose lush,colourful music and grand, choral fi nale form a visionary hymn to the power of art.
Tuesday 20 August 7.30pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
2 hours approximately
eif.co.uk/rno2
Supported by Dunard Fund

Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the world’s truly great ensembles, famed for the nobility and sophistication of its orchestral sound, its velvety strings, golden brass and gleaming woodwind.
The orchestra performs one of the greatest symphonic achievements in the repertoire. Gustav Mahler never lived to hear his sombre yet visionary Ninth Symphony performed, and it is often considered his farewell to the world, with music of great tenderness as well as volcanic climaxes.
Conductor Daniele Gatti is a renowned Mahlerian and widely respected for his searching, dramatic performances that balance incisive detail with emotional resonance.
‘an experience that will stay with me for years to come.’ The Guardian
Friday 30 August 8.00pmUsher Hall
Tickets£42 £35 £26 £24 £17 £12
1 hour 30 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/concertgebouw
Sponsored by Pinsent Masons
With additional support from Embassy of the Kingdom ofThe Netherlands, London

Blending sensuality with a searching intellectual rigour, French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard has swiftly established himself as one of the world’s truly great keyboard players, especially prized for his rich, penetrating performances of 20th-century music.
Following his two late-night concerts in The Hub, in this Queen’s Hall recital he contrasts pieces from two of the finest collections in the piano repertoire.
Debussy’s impressionistic Préludes are exquisite evocations of places, people and moods, combining virtuoso pianism with delicate poetry. Aimard includes the famous La cathédrale engloutie, Debussy’s vivid musical depiction of a mythical Breton cathedral that rises from the waves.
He contrasts Debussy’s miniature masterpieces with fiery Études by Ligeti, powerfully expressive showpieces that push a performer’s abilities to their limits.
‘the Frenchman lures his audiences in such a wonderful way’ Die Welt
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Friday 23 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/aimard

Moscow-born pianist Nikolai Lugansky has been praised for both the reflective poetry and the blazing virtuosity of his commanding performances, and he explores both of these qualities in his widerangingrecital.
Admired as one of the world’s foremost Rachmaninov interpreters, Lugansky tackles a selection of the composer’s sometimes volcanic Études-tableaux, considered to be among the most challenging music in the piano repertoire.
His recital reaches a climax with Liszt’s sparkling water poem Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este and the same composer’s brilliantly virtuosic solo-piano arrangement of one of the grandest moments in all Wagner’s operas.
In the first half, Lugansky contrasts the melancholy impressionism of Janácek’s suite In the Mists with four of Schubert’s intensely lyrical.impromptus.
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Thursday 15 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/lugansky
Supported by Joscelyn Fox