musm Q rEsrtyAL
OPERA
DONALD RUNNICLES
Although born and educated in Edinburgh. the conductor Donald Runnicles is not the known name in Scotland that he should be. Abroad. however. particularly in Germany. he is one of the most highly regarded opera conductors around. It is apt. then. that the Festival brings him to Edinburgh to conduct Wagner. the composer whose Ring cycle Runnicles has had great success with in Europe. including at Bayreuth. the little Bavarian city where Wagner‘s dream was fulfilled with the opening of his own theatre. For the Usher Hall performance. Runnicles isjoined by other highly acclaimed Wagner interpreters including the soprano Jane Eaglen who sings Brunnhilde. Janice Watson as Woglinde/Gutrune. Phillip Joll as Gunter and John Connell as Hagen. Wagner in Concert cannot ever. naturally. hope to match Wagner on the
PAINTING
Operatic stage. but the excerpts from Siegfried and Gotterdammerung will certainly not be short on drama. (Carol Main) I Wagner in Concert (Festival) Usher Hall. 225 5756. 24 Aug. 7.30pm. £5—£25.
CHARLOTTE PETERSEN/ REBECCA KNOBB/ KATH CAMPBELL
The Clarsach Society presents their annual Festival series of concerts centred on music for the Scottish small harp. usually performed solo. with vocals or in various recurring duos. and it must be said. neither tremendously traditional nor musically adventurous. But there is some refreshing new music this year played by the trio of young women musicians collectively known as Calluna (heather).
The harp — one of Mark Norris‘ latest — is in the capable hands of Charlotte Petersen. with singer Kath Campbell
I’ R l 7. l‘.
playing cello. Rebecca Knorr plays the older. wooden eight-key flute. and describes their approach. ‘Charlotte's a very experienced soloist but had wanted for a long time to work more eo- operatively. I'd always wanted to play with a clarsach. and so we just started getting together regularly. playing a mixture ofold tunes and our own compositions. Then we met Kath. who. as well as being really enthusiastic. has a great knowledge of Highland music in her bones. She leamed to sing a lot of traditional Scots songs at home.
‘We’re playing quite a lot of traditional music. but it‘s not all furious reels and jigs. We dig around for slower. interesting tunes we like. that catch our ears. and. I suppose. that we find moving.‘ (Norman Chalmers)
I Charlotte Petersen, Kath Campbell and Rebecca Knorr (Fringe) Calluna. St Andrew and St George's Church (Venue 11]) 225 3847. 22 Aug. 7.30pm. £5.50 (£4.50).
iixltihit‘ion oftt’nrks by the short—listed artists
lor Britain‘s largest annual art award
Karl Watchke
Callum lnnes
Chantapr (l\\\l( fxi
Patrick Caulfield
Mantra
Stephen Buckley
Miner
Maggi Hambling
EDINBURGH EXHIBITION 14 August — 3 September 1995 Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh
loam-6pm Monday — Saturday, 11am-6pm Sunday, Admission free
Winner to be announced on 20 September 1995
3* barrister?
North and South
One of the more intriguing musical meetings of the Festival is tucked away in the Book Festival’s music programme at the Spiegeltent, when local percussionist Mike Travis renews an old friendship with former Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper in the appropriately named North and South.
Hopper came out of the celebrated Canterbury progressive rock scene in the 605, but since the break-up of Soft Machine in the early 70s he has played in a whole range of settings within a broadly defined jazz-rock format. He first met Travis, though, in that same prog-rock setting.
‘The first time we ever met Mike he was involved in a gig I went to hear where Gilgamesh and Hatfield and the North played as one hand using two of everything, which must have been around 1970. I was taken with his playing, and later on t recommended him to Stomu Yamash’ta when his drummer left East Wind, and we played together in that band for a little while.’
The pair have done ‘some odds and ends’ over the years since then, and
Hugh Hopper: rare date will be joined on this gig by Travis’s regular collaborator, saxophonist Steve Kettley, and pianist Paul Flush. Hopper has just issued a new CD, Carousel, featuring his own Anglo- Franco-Dutch band, but he rarely plays in the UK.
‘Most gigs with my own band are in Europe, and that was pretty much true even with the Softs. I guess we’ll be doing something in that broad area of jazz-rock. I started out in that progressive rock thing, but I got dragged backwards through jazz, from the avant-garde and Ornette Coleman back into a straighter thing, and that is the musical area I’m most interested in.’ (Kenny Mathieson) North And South (Book Festival) Spiegeltent, 220 3990. 7.30pm. £5 (£2.50).
iv.
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74 The List I8-24 Aug 1995