Edinburgh International Festival 2007 Programme

yep - I'm a little underwhelmed too. Nice to see Tallis doing some Palestrina, but compared to last year, the opera, dance & classical offerings are all a bit uninspiring.

Should save us a few quid.

Ian

Dear Tam and Ian

Maybe the programming marks a break in the traditional repertoire of the festival, but it constitutes still a rather exciting program, do I think. Some of the greatest names in medieval and renaissance music (composers as well as performers) are well represented. You could do worse, than attending the events.

Regards, Poul

Poul,

Do you have a specific recommendations/highlight as I'm not so familiar with much of what is on offer.

Thanks

Ian

Dear Poul,

You may be right. And of course it is always a good thing to broaden one's horizons (though I think they would have been well advised to keep a little more of the traditional repertoire). As Ian, I know very little of much of this music (though I haven't tended to enjoy most of the early music I've heard all that much). Given that, I have scaled back quite a bit on my booking this year (which will give me more time for other commitments at the time), but I would very much appreciate half a dozen or so recommendations for things I really ought to give a chance to.

regards, Tam

It's a bit like when you get the Proms line up for the first time. The reaction is usually one of slight disappointment. In the post-mortem in the IC bar at the end of it all everyone goes...what a great season that was!

It's not such a great line-up if you are into big orchestral or operatic blockbusters. There are some very tempting vocal recitals though: the excellent Mark Padmore singing Bach Cantatas, Andreas Scholl in Vivaldi, Ian Bostridge, Deborah Voigt and two helpings of Christine Brewer (one of the 20 greatest sopranos of all time, according to the BBC music mag...).

The Vespers of 1610 could be a good place to start on Monteverdi. L'Orfeo might seem a little static if you are coming straight from Tosca.

Dear Tam and Ian

Now this program is more about who is performing, than what they perform, but I would at least attend the recitals of Jordi Savall, Anonymous Four, The Orlando Consort, Huelgas Ensemble and maybe Theatre of voices. I own number of impressive recordings made by these.

Regards,

Well finally got around to trying to make some bookings as my summer plans are finally fixed and blow me almost everything I wanted to go to is booked out. Serves me right I suppose.....

Ian

Out of curiousity, what were they? (I'm interested to know what's sold out). I'm sure there will be plenty of tickets left for the Ades though

regards, Tam

Tam

Sold Out

Tallis Scholars/Palestrina - the only thing which stood out for me this year.

John Williams at QH

San Francisco Orch.- Tschaikovsky Winter Dreams night, limited seats left - we're well up in the gods - haven't been there for years. I seem to recall someone saying that the sound was very good up there though. Sister in law won't be happy about the vertigo!

BAVARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Sibelius Symph Nr 2 scattered seats , we sprang for some stalls seats.

Trish Brown Dance company - reasonable seats still avaailable. (yes I 'fess up I like good MODERN dance, and the Festival has had some truly stunning stuff over the years. Can't be bothered with the pineapple-totting classical stuff tho')

This years prices emphasise what a bargain last years Mackarras series was!

Have you taken the plunge for anything yet Tam ??

As to the sound in the gods, it is fantastic (though I find it can be a little loud with big orchestras - but my ears tend to be a little oversensitive, since nobody else I go with complains). However, once you get beyond row d or e it does become rather vertigo inducing (even for those such as myself who normally don't mind heights at all) - sitting in the very back row is disconcerting.

I booked my seats some while back. I've booked for a fair amount in weeks one and three but nothing in week two. I'll probably pick up one or two others as things go along.

I'm missing the opening concert (even though I'm fond of the Bernstein). On the Saturday I'll be at Jarvi and the RSNO (which includes Sibelius 4). Sunday, I'm missing and, assuming the tickets come through, am crazily jetting down to the Proms to hear Runnicles conduct Gotterdammerung. Back on Monday and Tuesday for the Ades - I'm especially looking forward to the first which has his wonderful violin concerto and Sibelius 3. Then on the Wednesday I'll be off the Brendel. It's virtually the same programme he played in his recital two years ago, but he plays it so well, I shalln't mind. Then I've got nothing booked until the last week when it's both Bavarians, both San Francisco, the Gurzenich Orchestra and the RSNO/Deneve Poulenc celebration.

The Mackerras does seem cheap, although remember some of the concerts were quite brief (one or two, such as 8th were less than half an hour).


I rather agree about modern dance. I went to a stunning piece a couple of years ago (not sure it classed quite as dance, more physical theatre) with narration entirely in French. classical ballet, on the other hand, rarely does it for me. I'd except Weill's Seven Deadly Sins from last year, but that's more of a dance/opera hybrid - I wish there was a DVD of it.

I was thinking today that the Jazz programme must be due out soon. I should try and get to more of it this year (I heard Chick Corea last year but that was it).


regards, Tam

The Jazz Festival and Fringe programmes have now been published.

I haven't had a really good look at the Fringe programme yet (though the Radio 4 fare doesn't seem as fine as last year). At the Jazz festival, I've booked for the appearance of Jacques Loussier's trio (whose jazzed up Bach I'm very much looking forward to).


regards, Tam

Well, the festival is almost upon us - next week is week zero of the Fringe and already various venues seem to be springing up all over town. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to shamelessly plug the venue I volunteer at. My apologies if this breaks any forum rules (we do give all the money we raise to charity though).

See here for more about Venue40 and our programme for this year.

regards, Tam

quote:

Originally posted by Tam:
At the Jazz festival, I've booked for the appearance of Jacques Loussier's trio (whose jazzed up Bach I'm very much looking forward to).

Ha Ha snap .. the only thing I've got booked for the Jazz festival this year. Should be good.
Ian

Well, if you wanted to try and meet for a drink it would be nice to put a face to a name.

regards, Tam

Sounds like a plan Tam - my email is in my profile.

cheers, Ian

Noted. Will e-mail you over at some point over the weekend.

regards, Tam

It was Christmas 2005, it was late at night and I was packing for my holiday visit to my parents' home. It was roughly midway through Radio 3's Bach experience, and, much as I love the composer, it was starting to wear just the slightest bit thin. I turned on the small portable radio and heard something unlike anything I would have expected. I had to sit down, stop packing, and listen to the rest of the programme. I was hearing the Jacques Loussier trio play Bach.

Actually I, and probably you too, had heard them play before. Like most, when such things were still allowed on our television screens, I had seen the adverts for Hamlet cigars: the Loussier trio playing Bach's famous 'air on a g string' was their signature tune. First they played the prelude no.1 in C from the Well Tempered Klavier and then the pastorale in C major. I think I only tuned in during the pastorale, which was nice enough. Then came the 5th Brandenburg concerto and I was utterly swept away. I love hearing new things, I love to hear a take on something I know that is new and fresh. It's especially wonderful when done to a work that you know so well, and for me that is a large part of the appeal of Loussier's work. I was sold, and I soon hunted down the CD of this work, though have never got round to further investigation.

But when the Edinburgh Jazz and Blue festival programme came out, and Loussier was visiting the Queen's Hall, it as an opportunity far too good to pass up. I very much like what the Queen's Hall do during the Jazz festival: the rows of central stalls seats are cleared away to make room for a series of tables and I managed to get a seat at one of the front ones. Indeed, my view of the stage could hardly have been better and, unlike last year for Chick Corea's wonderful gig, the keyboard was in full view, but then that was from a last minute ticket standing in the gallery for less than half the price, so I can't really complain.

I suppose he's one of those artists you either adore or just don't really get, or, I imagine, in some cases cannot stand for his defacement of Bach's glorious music (though I think it complements the composer wonderfully, and a lot more so than many a straight interpretation by some classical performers I could mention, certainly there was more passion in each note than in most of the recent Matthew Passion at Glyndebourne).

There's always a problem with concerts like this, though. There were certain pieces I wanted to hear, principally the 5th Brandenburg, and you can often spoil things waiting for your pieces. He jumped straight in with Bach and the prelude no.1 in C from the Well Tempered, and very fine it was too. Though the performance was pretty much as on my CD. Indeed, if there was a criticism in the first half, it would be that it did occasionally feel like they were playing the old standards by the numbers, as it were. It was all terribly nice, but that extra edge wasn't always there.

They moved into the pastorale, which isn't really my favourite piece, and doesn't respond quite so wonderfully to the treatment as some do. There were other problems too. The talented bassist Benoit Dunoyer De Segonzac and drummer Andre Arpino both took extended, extravagant solos (I don't recall, and have failed to note, in which works they did so). These were technically excellent, and there was a real passion to them, indeed, Arpino at times almost resembled Animal from the Muppets in his passion. I should stress I mean that comparison positively. Indeed, at one moment, the cymbal stand moving as he struck it, I did wonder if, a few feet away, I was entirely safe. The problem was that neither of these solos fitted with the Bach. They didn't really grow out of it, or fit back into it as they ended, and that's something I feel that a good jazz solo ought to do. It would have been interesting to hear these musicians in repertoire where such displays would have been a better fit.

But at their best they were sublime: "Here's a well known piece..." said Loussier dryly before playing 'air on a g string'. Truth be told, I was for a moment slightly disappointed as I had half-expected it as an encore. And then, to close the first half, I got my wish: the 5th Brandenburg. And it was superb. Everything I love about the recording, the colour, the texture, and the extra edge of the live reading. Loussier soloed, and his really fitted in exactly the way the others' didn't. Fredrik will choke on his Polish vodka, but if I could take only one Brandenburg 5 to my desert island it would not be a conventional reading, it would be this one.

In the second half we left Bach behind. Personally, I would have preferred to have the composer spread throughout the concert, as this way left things slightly unbalanced. Still, I'd not heard Loussier's treatment on anyone else's work, so I'm glad he didn't just stick with his bread and butter. First up was Vivaldi. I don't like the four seasons very much. I think this is largely because it is played far, far too often. Indeed, we were once staying in a hotel for a week and every morning it was pumped into the dining room at breakfast. It was enough to remove the will to live. However, the Loussier take (they tackled 'Summer') is just the breath of fresh air needed, heightened by the bassist's enthusiastic bowing at the start and end. I think I may track down their disc to hear how they fare on the rest. Then we got a piece by Satie and then Ravel's Bolero, which, if anything, I like even less than the four seasons. And yet the Loussier trio made it enjoyable. The amount of different colour and texture they brought to this horribly repetitive work, that in most hands sounds soothingly akin to Chinese water torture, was impressive, though I think it helped that they were not entirely faithful to the composer's notes.

They were well received by the packed audience and we got one more piece of Bach as an encore. I think (I'm not entirely positive, as they repeated the annoying habit of most performers in not announcing what it was), this was Jesu, Joy of man's desiring (and the snatch of a conventional piano version I played on return home seemed to confirm this - I do have Loussier playing this as well, but by the time I remembered, and given he takes it so much slower on CD, I couldn't be 100 per cent sure). They raced through it with the kind of gusto that hadn't always been present in the first half. There was an absolutely magical interplay between bassist and drummer and I walked out of the hall now having to track this down as well.


regards, Tam


p.s. It was also very nice to have the opportunity to meet Ian briefly during the interval. We both agreed that Fredrik would probably not have enjoyed himself. We were wondering, though, how many more Edinburgh based forum members there are.

Dear Tam,

You and Ian would not be correct in thinking I would dislike this. Quite the opposite! I admire Loussier tremendously, especially his take on Bach! I also enjoy Busoni's take! The music is transformed, but that is a definitive part of the enterprise!! There is no pretence that this is going to be an urtext performance, but a supreme compliment in that it proves Bach is capable of being relievant for everyone, without a need for slavish autenticity! We know the transformation is coming, and it's brilliantly done. The real difference for me is that Loussier does not pretend he is playing Bach as such, but playing his most lovely take on it.

Bach for a merry day, and Bach is merry, oh, so often! I wish I would have had the chance to be there. One great experience in a not dissimilar vien, though there was no Bach was once attending a concert of the late Stephan Grapelli! Artists like this literally transcend the medium, such is their artistry!

I hope Ian is well also. I have not been in contact for ages, since we corresponded about Mozart as a result of this Forum. Send him my best wishes if you see him!

ATB from Fredrik

Well I ventured into this one in ignorance, not really having heard of Loussier before. Once Tam told me of the Hamlet connection I knew what I was in for and Loussier didn't dissapoint.

During the first Bach set which I enjoyed I found myself fighting the instinct to argue that the original was better. But certainly what he does to the music is a respectful re-working rather than some abomination, and the changes are substantial enough to feel that you are hearing something new, but familiar.

I can only echo Tam's sentiments about the over-indulgent solo's which didn't fit at all into their pieces and should have been cut in half, or even skipped.

In contrast to Tam, I enjoyed the second half of the concert even more than the first. I quite like the Four Seasons and the Loussier treatment was very refreshing and new. I too will be interested in hearing what the did with the rest of the year. The little gem of the evening for me was Satie's Gymnopedie - a lovely little piece anyhow but caressed by Loussier in a beautiful way into something slightly different. For me the Balero was made by the drummer, his technique and variety throughout kept the interest in this piece going until the end.

It was nice to put a face to Tam after a year or two of e-presence - he's much younger looking than his wide knowledge of the classical scene might lead you to guess!

I'm surprised but pleased to hear that Fredrik is a Loussier fan. Maybe I shouldn't be, good music is good music after all.

So all in all a very good start to this year's Festival outings, which will resume once I get back from a nice relaxing trip to Sibelius country starting Friday.

Ian

Dear Fredrik,

I am very sorry, but extremely glad, to have misjudged this.


On a related topic, quite correctly, the Mackerras Beethoven recordings from last year's festival are to be released by Hyperion. It seems that these were recorded in rehearsal rather than the actual radio broadcasts, so perhaps the engineering will be superior. Either way, I shall have to get my credit card out...

See here for more details.

regards, Tam

Maybe a cycle to put next to Klemperer's then? I don't particularly mean the late stereo EMI set, but one I am trying to build up from various recording companies and situations [live/studio, EMI/Vox/Testamant, mono/stereo]. This new recording looks truly intersting to me!

I suspect that there may be more parallels than might be expected, in reality, and not least is that Klemperer's tempo in the Adagio/Andante/Adagio movement in the Choral will without question be at the faster tempo that MacKerras will be using. The Wagner/Furtwangler school of very slow conducting in Beethoven is at is most remarkably distended in this movement. In many of the existing recordings he is over 21 minutes as opposed to Klemperer's less than 14 - he is even faster in the RFH performance on Testament. Klemperer never stopped probing this mucic, and improving his conception. I think this was particularly the case in the Choral Symphony for him. Sadly sometimes in latter days the mind was strong, but the body weak, however.

I did not find David Zinman's reading faintly complelling at this faster tempo [Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra on Ars Nova] however, and it does require a considerable talent to make the movement lyrical and fast moveng [in the relative sense] as opposed to the easy option of making it lyrical and very slow, which hardly seems to have been Beethoven's idea looking at his metronome marks!

All the best performances of the Ninth I know involve the Philharmonia as well, which is interesting, or not!

Thanks for the link Tam!

ATB from Fredrik

Unfortunately, the performance of the Choral was the one weak link in the cycle. I don't mean that badly, rather in a relative sense. And it certainly wasn't the fault of the Philharmonia, who played their socks off. Rather the chorus weren't as quite so wonderful (unfortunately the festival chorus was on duty rather than the Philharmonia's own). From my thread on last year's festival:

quote:

Well, tonight's Beethoven 9th was very fine indeed. Mackerras opts for pretty brisk tempi (as he has done throughout, and in this work for reasons very well laid out in his liner note for the cd set). What moved me most was the wonderful second movement which he played with a lightness of touch that I have rarely if ever associated with it - more usually it is heavy and serious (and too often ponderous). The slow movement was lovely, and those key chords I have gone on at lenght about on the Beethoven thread sent shivers down my spine.

The only reservation comes with the finale. Not anything to do with the conducting or the orchestral playing (the Philharmonia were wonderful, especially their string playing and timpanist - I was also impressed by how much better the horns were than for Blomstedt the other night). Indeed, they proved exactly why Michael Tummulty writing in the Herald was so wrong when he complained the SCO should have done this. The Philharmonia provided a larger and richer sound so utterly different to the smaller band (and so sucessful in this work) that could never have been achieved. And anyway, to augment the SCO sufficiently would have wiped away much of its charm. No, the reservations concern the Chorus (the soloists were broadly speaking fine, especially alto Catherine Wyn-Rogers). I have said before that the Festival Chorus are not first rate, indeed, I do not even think they are close to being the finest chorus in Scotland (the SCO one is wonderful, though would have been too small, the Edinburgh Choral Union are great), however, it was a terrible shame the Philharmonia didn't bring their own chorus. The diction was poor and the was a slight lack of clarity. However, it wasn't awful, and the direction and playing more than made up for it. However, it does make the quotes in the programme seem faitly ironic: "one of the three great choirs of Europe" says Herbert von Karajan (it must be a little while since he was in a position to judge!).

I feel supremely lucky to have had the chance to hear Mackerras conduct all these symphonies and it really has a dream come true. I can't recommend them highly enough when they come to be broadcast. The freshness he has brought to these works (along with an energy that would be beyond many half his age) has really been something.

In short, while I think the performances on this new set are superior, I think the Liverpool 9th is better overall.

regards, Tam

With regard to tempi, in the slow movement, Mackerras runs to about 12 minutes. And certainly he's brisk here, as elsewhere in the symphony, but he never feels rushed. For me that's always the problem with Zinman. In fairness to him, I haven't heard the 9th, but the others in his cycle are in such a rush that something gets lost along the way.

regards, Tam

Thanks for the caveat. And the Liverpool set in on CFP at super budget I believe! Perhaps both should come. I am in Beethoven mode at the moment!

Kindest regards from Fredrik

PS: Half Zinman's problem is that the orchestra seems not quite convinced, let alone convincing, with Zinman's very brisk tempi. Not something that would be likely in the UK, where such crack bands as the SCO and Philharmonia, are mor e than capable of the greatest virtuoisity when the music calls for it!

If you shop around online you can find the Liverpool set for around £10. There's no real reason for not owning it.

regards, Tam