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CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS
Classical | MUSIC
CLASSICAL PIANIST ROMAN RABINOVICH Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 20 & Fri 21 Oct
A hit at last year’s Lammermuir Festival, the young US-based pianist Roman Rabinovich is causing quite a stir on the international piano circuit. He returns to Scotland to make his debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Edinburgh and Glasgow in October. Born in Uzbekistan and first taught piano by his mother at age six, Rabinovich is not only a pianist – with the honour of being one of the first three young pianists of outstanding promise to be championed by Sir András Schiff in his Building Bridges series – but also a composer and highly talented visual artist, often creating artwork to illustrate what he is doing musically.
‘For me,’ he says, ‘playing the piano, composing and visual art come from the same creative impulse. There are many parallels between the two art forms and one informs the other. There are colours and sense of line in music and there are tonalities and structure in painting.’
Much of his artwork is created on an iPad, which he also uses in place of a conventional printed score if not performing from memory. Combined with his talent across multiple art forms, Rabinovich is particularly appealing to younger generation audiences.
Thinking about the exuberance of Mendelssohn’s ‘Piano Concerto No 1’, which he plays with the RSNO and conductor Sir Roger Norrington, Rabinovich says, ‘Composing helps me to understand how great composers created their masterpieces and keeps my performing life fresh. It is ultimately about self- expression and wanting to communicate and share what I love.’ (Carol Main)
HITLIST
BBC SSO: KAREN CARGILL SINGS ELGAR Thu 28 Sep, City Halls, Glasgow See Scotland’s favourite mezzo in Elgar’s Sea Pictures, the Edwardian English composer’s settings of five poems inspired by the sea, along with Michael Tippett’s Symphony No 3, a masterpiece ahead of its time, which brings in blues and a direct quote from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. SCOTTISH OPERA: LA TRAVIATA Thu 19, Sun 22, Wed 25, Sat 28 Oct, Thu 30 Nov, Sat 2 Dec, Theatre Royal, Glasgow Sir David McVicar’s production of La Traviata is a stunner. Set in late 19th-century Paris, the tragic love story of Violetta and Alfredo is one that never fails to melt the heart. Also Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed 15, Sun 19, Tue 21, Thu 23, Sat 25 Nov.
GLASGOW
EDINBURGH OUT OF TOWN
SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION FINAL 2017 Sun 10 Sep, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Competitors from all over the world vie for the prestigious prize, with stages 1 & 2 finals and the semi-finals over and done with as the three selected to perform a piano concerto with orchestra bring the event to a nail-biting conclusion. RSNO: CHINA STORY Fri 29 Sep, Usher Hall, Edinburgh An evening predominantly about music from Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye, arguably China’s greatest living composer writing in the western classical tradition. Three of his pieces for soloists and orchestra frame Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Also Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 30 Sep.
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ROMAN RABINOVICH Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 21 Oct The US-based pianist is a rising star on the international scene, and returns to Scotland to make his RSNO debut. See preview, above. Also Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 22 Oct.
SONICA Thu 26 Oct– Sun 5 Nov, various venues, Glasgow Held every two years, Sonica returns to Glasgow for eleven days to present the world’s best in visual sonic arts, with emerging British talent side by side with top international artists from 14 different countries. Produced and promoted by the fearless Cryptic. See feature, page 18. DUNEDIN CONSORT: BACH MASSES Sun 29 Oct, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh Enjoy the beautiful purity of Bach’s music from the perfectly matched pure voices of the Dunedin Consort, who present his Lutheran masses, smaller scale than the grandeur of the B minor Mass, but with the most glorious music full of colour and rhythmic vitality.
THE CUMNOCK TRYST: SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE, WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR AND SEAN SHIBE Sun 1 Oct, St John’s Church, Cumnock What a lineup for the Cumnock Tryst festival’s closing performance, with the strings of the Scottish Ensemble joined by brilliant young guitarist Sean Shibe and the glowing voices of Westminster Cathedral for festival founder James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, conducted by the composer. RED NOTE ENSEMBLE Fri 22 Sep, Eastfield Farm, Whittingehame All sorts of interesting and exciting concerts are once again part of Lammermuir Festival this autumn, but Red Note’s is one of the most unusual programmes and locations. Inaugurating a farm granary as a concert venue must be a first, as is a new Red Note commission from Thomas Butler, heard alongside The Lighthouse Keepers, an edge-of-the-seat tale of a keeper and his son trapped in their lighthouse with music by David Sawer.
1 Sep–31 Oct 2017 THE LIST 79