Search: Music, 5-10 - Edinburgh Festival Guide

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
 
 

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

Playing four classics from the chamber repertoire on the same number of historical clarinets, Australian-born Nicola Boud reveals how instrument design influenced the course of music, and vice versa.
Joined by a group of international period players, she performs the sparkling ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio, one of the masterpieces that grew from Mozart’s love for the newly invented clarinet and served to establish itas a concert instrument.
Schubert’s emotionally potent The Shepherd on the Rock is a gripping mini-opera for soprano, clarinet and piano, and Glinka’s Trio pathétique is a passionate work inspired by unrequited love.
Brahms’s love of the clarinet even brought him out of retirement for two late sonatas, the second of which is a masterpiece of introspective beauty.
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Wednesday 14 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/boud
Supported byMr Hedley G Wright

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

Internationally renowned violinist Midori brings two concerts to this year’s Festival, offering a fresh perspective on one of the greatest collections of music in the violin repertoire. With their colossal ambition, intellectual intensity and huge emotional scope, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas stand at the pinnacle of solo violin music.
In her first concert, Midori sets the elegant Sonata in G minor against the rich, dense music of the C major Sonata. The eloquent D minor Partita concludes with the mighty Chaconne, one of the most powerful and demanding pieces ever written for a solo instrument.
By way of contrast, Midori begins the second half with Russian composer Alfred Schnittke’s brief yet poignant tribute to his forebear Shostakovich, in which she is accompanied by an invisible, ghostlypartner.
‘One wonders if there is a more purely and reliably satisfying violinist than Midori’ The Washington Post
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Thursday 22 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/midori1
Supported by Roxane Clayton

Acclaimed for her astonishingly assured performances while still a child, the Japanese-American violinist Midori is now internationally celebrated for the dignified concentration of her playing.
She begins the second of her two Festival recitals, contrasting Bach’s seminal Sonatas and Partitas with contemporary violin music, with the grandeur of the A minor Sonata before tackling the fearsome technical challenges of the B minor Partita.
After the brilliant wit of a duo for violin and electronics by contemporary Argentinian-born composer Mario Davidovsky, Midori concludes with the exuberance of Bach’s lively final Partita in E major.
‘charms her audience with her refined, fragile expertise’ Ruhr.Nachrichten
Saturday 24 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/midori2

A brilliant programme of modern masterworks from one of the hottest names in dance. Benjamin Millepied brings his new company to the UK for the first time, following his huge success as choreographer and star of Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning film Black Swan.
L.A. Dance Project is an artist collective founded by Millepied, composer Nico Muhly, art consultant Matthieu Humery, producer Charles Fabius and film producer Dimitri Chamblas. At the peak of his career, after starring with New York City Ballet, Millepied embarks on a new adventure.
‘The eclecticism is admirable. All three works look remarkably “now”. The dancers tackle their diverse challenges with skill.’ The New York Times
‘The biggest dancer to cross over into pop culture since Mikhail Baryshnikov.’ The New York Times
Quintett
William Forsythe Choreography (in collaboration with Dana Caspersen, Stephen Galloway, Jacopo Godani, Thomas McManus and Jone San Martin)Stephen Galloway Costume designerWilliam Forsythe Lighting designer
Forsythe’s seminal work, set to Gavin Bryars’s emotional and elegiac Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is a moving final love letter to his wife before she died.
Winterbranch
Merce Cunningham  ChoreographerLa Monte Young  Music (2 Sounds)Robert Rauschenberg  Décor and costume designerBeverly Emmons  Lighting designer (based on concepts by Robert Rauschenberg)Jennifer Goggans  Staging (assisted by Robert Swinston)
This dramatic work features costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and a score, 2 Sounds, by La Monte Young. Merce Cunningham talked about two ‘facts’ of dancing – the act of falling, and unless one stayson the ground, the subsequent act of rising. The dancers engage in a series of falls, in both slow and fast motion, eventually clustering together to fall and rise united as a cohesive group.
Moving Parts
Benjamin Millepied  ChoreographyNico Muhly  Music compositionChristopher Wool  Visual installationKate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte)  Costumer designersRoderick Murray  Lighting designer
A new work by the group’s founding choreographer.
Saturday 24 – Monday 26 August 7.30pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£30 £27 £22 £17 £12 £10
2 hours approximatelyeif.co.uk/ladance
Sponsored byBaillie Gifford Investment Managers
Supported byDunard Fund
With additional support from Embassy of the United States of America, London
Monday 26 AugustTouch Tour 6.15pm Audio Described 7.15pm
 
 

Hebrides Ensemble and Thomas Bloch
William Conway  Cello/DirectorThomas Bloch     Glass harmonica
Mozart                  Oboe Quartet in F                                Fantasia in F minor for mechanical organ K594                                (arr. Lyell Cresswell, World Premiere, EIF commission)                                Adagio in C for glass harmonicaCrumb                    4 Nocturnes ‘Night Music II’Mozart                  Adagio and Rondo in C minor K617Crumb                   Vox Balaenae
Unusual instruments and boundary-pushing music old and new from one of Scotland’s most respected chamber groups, Hebrides Ensemble.
Mozart was at the cutting edge of technology in the two graceful works he wrote for glass harmonica, whose spinning crystal bowls are made to sound by gentle touch. It is an instrument almost never heard in modern times, and is played today by one of the world’s finest exponents, Thomas Bloch.
New Zealand-born composer Lyell Cresswell unveils his new ensemble arrangement, a Festival commission, of another Mozart oddity, the masterful F minor Fantasia originally written for a mechanical musical clock.
And contemporary US composer George Crumb conjures similarly magical sounds in the otherworldly whalesong evocations of his theatrical Vox Balaenae.
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Monday 26 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/hebrides-bloch
 

Edinburgh: Festival City Composer Tod Machover, conductor Peter Oundjian and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra take us through the creation of a new piece of music celebrating the City of Edinburgh and its Festival and co-created by members of the public. Tuesday 27 August 5.00pm45 minutes approximately Usher HallTickets £6

Dorothea Röschmann SopranoMalcolm Martineau      Piano
Schumann  Liederkreis Op 39Wolf             Mörike Lieder (selection)Berg            Seven Early Songs
A richly expressive recital of Romantic song from one of the world’s most celebrated singers. German soprano Dorothea Röschmann is widely admired for her vivid portrayals in the opera house, and her talent for dramatic characterisation is equally apparent in the concert.hall.
Alongside Edinburgh-born Malcolm Martineau, Röschmann performs Schumann’s Liederkreis Op 39, a set of 12 eloquent Lieder whose intense emotions and passionate melodies mark it out as one of thegreat Romantic song cycles.
After a selection of Wolf’s wittily poetic Mörike Lieder, Röschmann closes with the Seven Early Songs by Berg, whose lush harmonies reveal the influence of Wagner and Debussy.
‘simply wonderful, soaring and expressive, blessed with a beautiful tone and painting the words with meaning.’ International Record Review
‘Martineau’s inimitable pianism is authoritative and characterful… Pure genius.’ The Scotsman
This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Monday 19 August 11.00amThe Queen’s Hall
Tickets£29 £26 £21 £17.50 £11 £8
1 hour 45 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/roschmann-martineau