Friday 29 Saturday 30
Music Classical
contemporary music and players from the instrumental ensemble, Red Note. The Trossachs National Park and Loch Lomond are the inspiration behind Carrochan, a new suite by Edward McGuire.
Thursday 28
Glasgow ■ Westbourne Music The Merchant House, 7 West George Street, 649 5347. 12.45pm. £7 (£3–£6). The Yeats Trio – flute, viola and harp – is joined by soprano Michelle Sheridan for a performance of works by Debussy, Bax and Tavener.
Hour St George’s West Church, 58 Edinburgh ✽✽ Hebrides Ensemble @ Rush Shandwick Place, 668 2019. 6pm. £10 (£6). The fantastic Hebrides Ensemble performs Brahms’ String Sextet No 2 followed by Helen Grime’s 2007 work, Into the Faded Air. Includes a complimentary drink. ■ RSAMD and Orchestra of Scottish Opera: War and Peace Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.15pm. £13.50–£21.50 (concessions available). See Fri 22. ■ Nicolas Hodges The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.45pm. £10 (£7; children free). ecat presents the exciting British pianist in a performance of works by Georges Aperghis and Brice Pauset.
PREVIEW OPERA PREMIERE RSAMD – WAR AND PEACE
Glasgow ■ Tom Poster RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £9 (£6). Talented pianist Tom Poster as he performs works by Mozart, Chopin, Schumann/Liszt, Bartók and Stravinsky. ■ Music in the University Glasgow University Memorial Chapel, The Square, off University Avenue, 7.30pm. £8 (£5). La Serenissima perform works Vivaldi composed for the salon. ■ Naked Opera Mugdock Country Park, Craigallian Road, Milngavie, 956 6100. 7.45pm. £11 (£10). Opera and comedy combine, starring prima donna Alison Barton. Ticket price includes glass of wine. Booking essential. Edinburgh ■ Newtongrange Silver Band Portobello Town Hall, Portobello, 657 9090. 7.30pm. £5 (under 12s free). One of Scotland’s premier brass bands in a varied programme, with guest performers to be confirmed. ■ RSNO Favourites: Peer Gynt and Tchaikovsky 5 Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £10–£32 (concessions available). Pianist Terrence Wilson joins the RSNO for the European premiere of Michael Daugherty’s piano concerto, Deus ex machina. On either side are two popular favourites: Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No 1 and Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous Symphony No 5. David Danzmayr conducts.
Glasgow ■ RSNO Favourites: Peer Gynt and Tchaikovsky 5 Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £10–£32 (concessions available). See Fri 29 Jan.
Edinburgh ■ RSAMD and Orchestra of Scottish Opera: War and Peace Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.15pm. £13.50–£21.50 (concessions available). See Fri 22. ■ La Serenissima: Vivaldi – Music for the Salon St Cecilia’s Hall, Cowgate, 668 2019. 7.45pm. £14 (£11–£5). Period performance presented by the Georgian Concert Society. Cantatas for soprano and chamber concertos for wind and strings provide examples of Vivaldi’s intimate moments. Sunday 31 Glasgow FREE Kelvingrove Sunday Organ Recitals Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Argyle Street, 276 9599. 3–3.45pm. See Sun 24. Edinburgh ■ St Giles’ at Six St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Retiring collection. Napier University Chamber Choir gives a concert marking Homelessness Sunday, with partsongs by Stanford, Parry and Debussy. Proceeds go to The Bethany Trust.
Monday 1 Glasgow ■ Russian Chamber Music RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £5 (£3). As part of Russian Week a student chamber group explores Russia’s rich heritage of chamber music. ■ More Celtic and Cossack Connections RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £5 (£3). The RSAMD and the Rostov Conservatoire celebrate three years of collaborations with a concert of romances and folk songs as well as works by Mussorgsky and Shostakovich.
Tuesday 2
Glasgow ■ Romantic Music for Oboe Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 548 2558. 1.15pm. £4. Music by Schumann and more performed by Linsey Biggans. ■ Russian Chamber Music RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £5 (£3). Russian Week continues with an exploration of the country’s chamber music.
Wednesday 3 Glasgow ■ Tony and Tania Webster Prize for Piano RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 11am. £2 (£1). A piano competition with a difference. Enjoy performances of Russian rarities.
Thursday 4 Glasgow FREE Music in the University Glasgow University Concert Hall, University Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10pm. Carnyx Brass, made up of three of Scotland’s leading brass instrumentalists, performs music by John Kenny, Poulenc and the world premiere of Etienne Rolin’s Mi Cuit, Mi Cuivre. ■ BBC SSO and Glasgow Schools: Songs from the Shows City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £8. Hear Glasgow’s future star singers as Glasgow’s schools collaborate with the BBC SSO in a concert of favourite showtunes, from moving ballads to toe- tapping, jazz-handing belters. ■ Call of the Cossacks RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £9 (£6). RSAMD Brass celebrates the
www.list.co.uk/music Hitlist THE BEST CLASSICAL & OPERA*
✽✽ Scottish Chamber Orchestra: L’Enfance du Christ Outstanding Scottish mezzo Karen Cargill (above) is the SCO’s featured artist for 2009/10 and her first appearance with new principal conductor Robin Ticciati is in Berlioz’s choral masterpiece L’Enfance du Christ, which also marks the first concerts in post for new SCO Chorusmaster Gregory Batsleer. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 4 Feb; City Halls, Glasgow, Fri 5 Feb. ✽✽ Hebrides Ensemble @ Rush Hour Two linked concerts of sublime chamber music with complimentary drinks. Designed to banish the January blues for at least another year. St George’s West Church, Edinburgh, Thu 21 Jan and Thu 28 Jan. ✽✽ RSNO: Sir Andrew Davis and John Lill Legendary Last Night of the Proms conductor Sir Andrew Davis returns to the RSNO for the first time in thirty years. Currently Chicago-based as music director of the Lyric Opera Company, he remains one of the UK’s most loved conductors. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 22 Jan; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sat 23 Jan.
150th birthday of Tchaikovsky’s pupil Victor Ewald with a performance of his Symphony for Brass alongside Britten’s Russian Funeral, de Meij’s Extreme Makeover (on a theme of Tchaikovsky) and Graham’s Call of the Cossacks. Edinburgh FREE Live Music Now: Duende! National Gallery Complex, The Mound, 624 6200. 6–6.30pm. Yvonne Paterson and Andrew Robinson perform 18th- century flute and guitar works. ✽✽ Scottish Chamber Orchestra: L’Enfance du Christ Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £8.50–£26 (concessions available). New Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati leads the SCO, SCO Chorus and soloists Karen Cargill, Yann Beuron, Ronan Collett and Matthew Rose through Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ. The work tells of the story of the birth of Christ and the story of the Holy Family as they flee to Egypt.
In what must be their most ambitious opera project ever, the RSAMD present the premiere of the original version of Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace. Based on Tolstoy’s epic novel of the same name, the version of the opera which will be seen in Glasgow and Edinburgh is as the composer intended it to be, and, sadly, which he never saw. Indeed, even though Prokofiev made at least five versions of the opera between 1942 and his death in 1953, he died just two months before even one of these was staged in public performance. The completion of the original score has been undertaken by renowned
Prokofiev expert and former RSAMD vice principal, Dr Rita McAllister. As a research student, Prokofiev’s operas formed the basis of her PhD. ‘I was lucky to see his original manuscripts, which was very unusual in those days,’ she says, ‘so I went back to Moscow to build on what I’d done then and worked on the final version by cutting and pasting, taking out some sections and putting back others.’ Around 450 bars of Prokofiev’s discarded sections required orchestration from scratch by McAllister. Soviet censoring and World War II were responsible for the years of changes and revision, but the original music is, says McAllister, ‘very lyrical. It doesn’t sound Soviet, but it does sound Russian. The story, which is not complicated to follow, is the same. In the first half there is peace and the second half, war. But the original version is more character based, with more named roles.’ At three hours long it is also more manageable than what would otherwise last over four hours. Numbers required remain high. No less than 230 cast, production staff, RSAMD instrumentalists, their Russian partners from Rostov on Don and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera are involved. (Carol Main) ■ War and Peace, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 22–Sat 23 Jan; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 28 Jan and Sat 30 Jan.
82 THE LIST 21 Jan–4 Feb 2010