Haddington Wind Octet Town House, 7.30pm. £11 (£9). Young Glasgow and Edinburgh musicians perform wind serenades by Mozart and Beethoven.
Monday 15 Glasgow Prize Winning Strings Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £7 (£5). Prize winning string players from the 2011/12 year in performance.
Tuesday 16
Glasgow FREE Glasgow University Chapel Choir: Choral Contemplations III Glasgow University Chapel, University Avenue, 330 4092. 6–7pm. The choir performs Vivaldi’s St Luke Magnificat. Edinburgh FREE Marianne Olyver & Robert Schuck Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, 651 3212. 1.10pm. Olyver (violin) and Schuck (piano) play works by Hans Gál and Erwin Schulhoff, and Gipsy Carnival as arranged by Jascha Krein.
Wednesday 17
Glasgow FREE Scottish Opera & Shelter Support Services: The Magic Boot Maryhill Burgh Halls, 10–24 Gairbraid Avenue, 0845 860 1891. 4–5pm. A community opera written and performed by families with experience of homelessness, with help from Scottish Opera and composer Jason Staddon. Part of Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. Booking essential. Scottish Opera: The Magic Flute Theatre Royal, 282 Hope Street, 0844 871 7647. 7.15pm. £9–£70. Mozart’s magnificent tale of the search for love, wisdom and . . . something or other. Starring Nicky Spence and Mari Moriya. Ekhart Wycik conducts. sound lab presents: Nick Fells with Kate Burton City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 8pm. £6. A collaboration between writer/director Burton and composer/performer/sound artist Fells, a founder member of the Glasgow Improvisers’ Orchestra. St Andrews Ian Bostridge & Julius Drake: Winterreise Younger Hall, North Street, 01334 475000. 7.30pm. £12–£21 (£9–£18). Tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake perform Schubert’s great song cycle. Part of St Andrews Voices.
Thursday 18 Glasgow Brodsky Quartet The Merchant House, 7 West George Street, 649 5347. 12.45pm. £8 (£7; students and children £4). Renowned quartet plays Haydn’s String Quartet Op 54/2 and Debussy’s String Quartet. FREE Joseph Long Glasgow University Concert Hall, University Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10–2pm. Long (piano) performs Debussy’s Preludes Book 2. FREE Scottish Opera: The Magic Flute Unwrapped Theatre Royal, 282 Hope Street, 0844 871 7647. 6pm. The Magic Flute has more layers than an unusually tall lasagne. Scottish Opera’s Unwrapped events introduce you to the principal characters and help you to get some bearings before you see the opera proper.
WAGNER BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: TRISTAN AND ISOLDE City Halls, Glasgow, Thu 27 Sep, Thu 8 Nov, Thu 11 Apr; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 30 Sep, Sun 11 Nov, Sun 14 Apr
In Edinburgh-born Donald Runnicles (above), Scotland is extremely fortunate to have one of the world’s finest Wagnerian conductors as a prime mover in the country’s musical midsts. Featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Chief Conductor, the forthcoming three-part Tristan and Isolde in Glasgow and Edinburgh in celebration of the bi-centenary of the composer’s birth is simply something that should not be missed.
Although heard recently at the Edinburgh International Festival as a concert performance in its entirety, Runnicles has chosen to explore Wagner’s great love story in partnership with other romantic giants – Berlioz, Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss. The resulting tripartite performances are stunning concerts in their own right. They are also part of a project which embraces talks and discussion with writer AL Kennedy, radio broadcaster James Naughtie and opera director Graham Vick to shed further light on this truly remarkable music drama. ‘Donald Runnicles is known the world over as a leading Wagner
conductor,’ says BBC SSO Director Gavin Reid, ‘and he has assembled an international world-class cast to perform in Scotland.’ Soloists are indeed top-notchers and include Matthew Best as King Mark, a role in which he was unfortunately unable to appear as planned in Welsh National Opera’s Tristan at the Edinburgh Festival in August, and Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, who has sung the part of Isolde to critical acclaim and recorded the role with Placido Domingo. Making an appearance as the Young Seaman, well-known Scottish
tenor Nicky Spence is a voice to keep an ear out for. ‘The opening concert will be an unmissable way to open the season,’ says Gavin Reid. Tristan and Isolde is one of the most powerful operas ever written, with a profound and deeply moving story of love and death that is unparalleled elsewhere on stage or screen. Just go. (Carol Main)
Music CLASSICAL
Tuesday 9
Edinburgh FREE Edinburgh Quartet Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, 651 3212. 1.10pm. Haydn’s Quartet in B Minor Op 33/1 and Frank Bridge’s Three Idylls for String Quartet.
Thursday 11 Glasgow FREE McEwen Concert Glasgow University Concert Hall, University Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10–2pm. Ruth Morley (flute), Hannah Craib (viola) and Sharron Griffiths (harp) play Bax’s Elegiac Trio, Persichetti’s Serenade, Jongen’s Danse lente, Jolivet’s Petite Suite and the world premiere of Martin Suckling’s Tenebrae, commissioned by the University of Glasgow. BBC SSO: Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £10.50–£23.50. Szymanowski’s Concert Overture, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1 featuring the great Angela Hewitt, and Tchaikovsky’s final symphony, with Alexander Vedernikov conducting.
Edinburgh FREE Live Music Now Munich: Triple Strings Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, 624 6200. 6–6.30pm. Violin, viola and cello trio Triple Strings play Beethoven and Schnittke. The AniMotion Show: Evelyn Glennie and Maria Rud National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, 0300 123 6789. 7.30–9.30pm. £18 (£16). Percussion maestro Glennie, Russian visual artist Maria Rud, cellist Philip Sheppard and vocal consort Canty present a collaborative live work in the Grand Gallery. Ticket price includes an interval drink. Win tickets, page 6. Doric String Quartet Brunton Theatre, Ladywell Way, Musselburgh, 665 2240. 7.30pm. £14 (£12). Quartets by Beethoven, Bartok and Schumann. Tickets including supper (starting at 6pm) also available, £24 (£22). Scottish Chamber Orchestra: The Romantic Age Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £10–£29 (£5–£27; under 16s free). Berlioz’s Overture ‘King Lear’, Schumann’s Violin Concerto featuring Veronika Eberle, and Beethoven’s fabulously grumpy Symphony No 3. Robin Ticciati conducts.
Friday 12
Glasgow Junior Conservatoire Student Concert Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 4pm. £3. See Sat 29. Scottish Chamber Orchestra: The Romantic Age City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £13–£27 (£5–£25; under 16s free). See Thu 11. Edinburgh FREE Paul Stubbings Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, 651 3212. 1.10pm. Recital of organ works by JS Bach: Praeludium in E flat BWV 552/1, Fantasia in C minor BWV 562, Eight movements forming a ‘French Classical Organ Mass’ and Piéce d’orgue BWV 572. Danish Cultural Institute Concerts Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, 624 6200. 6.30–8pm. £8 (£6); £20 (£15) for all three concerts. Arild String Quartet plays music by Horneman, Sibelius and Brahms. RSNO: Oundjian Conducts Brahms Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £11.50–£35. Brahms’ sublime Symphony No 1, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Natasha Paremski and Britten’s windswept Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’. Peter Oundjian conducts.
102 THE LIST 20 Sep–18 Oct 2012
University of Glasgow Choral Society, University of Glasgow Chapel Choir, Bearsden Choir, the Choir of the Academy of Sacred Music, soloists Colette Ruddy (mezzo-soprano), Matthew Todd (tenor) and John Stainsby (bass) and organist Morley Whitehead. Neil Mantle conducts. Sunday 14
Saturday 13 Glasgow RSNO: Oundjian Conducts Brahms Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £11.50–£35. See Fri 12. The Really Terrible Orchestra: An Evening with Alexander McCall Smith City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £12. The RTO waves its flag for the shambolic, featuring author and contrabassoonist Alexander McCall Smith. Scottish Sinfonia: The Dream of Gerontius Bute Hall, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, 330 4092. 7.30pm. £10 (schoolchildren free). Elgar’s great oratorio also features
Glasgow Jamie MacDougall and Julia Lynch House for an Art Lover, Bellahouston Park, 10 Dumbreck Road, 353 4776. 2.30pm. £7.50. Presenter and singer MacDougall gives a recital, accompanied by Julia Lynch (piano). Part of Creative Mackintosh Festival. Dundee Scottish Ensemble: Faust Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 Nethergate, 01382 909900. 9pm. £tbc. Murnau’s 1926 classic is accompanied by four musicians from the Scottish Ensemble and DJ Alex Smoke performing Smoke’s original score for strings and electronics.