Music CLASSICAL
Helensburgh ■ Music for Remembrance: Howells and Brahms West Kirk, Colquhoun Street, 01436 676880. 7.30pm. £8. See Fri 12. Monday 15
Glasgow ■ Mondays at One Concert Series RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5027. 1pm. £6 (£4). ‘Slipping and Sliding’ concert, featuring the sliding skills of the RSAMD trombone players. ■ Blue Mondays at the RSAMD RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5027. 6.30pm. £4 (£3). Renowned guitarist Kevin MacKenzie is joined by student performers. Edinburgh ■ Per Rundberg The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.45pm. £10 (£7). Ecat presents the up-and- coming Swedish pianist, who plays works by Dutilleux, Pousseur, Murail, Bussotti and premieres a new work by Michael Edwards.
Tuesday 16
Glasgow FREE Gemma McCrisken and Walter Blair Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 548 2558. 1.15–2pm. The violinist and pianist take on Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok and Fauré. Edinburgh FREE Lunchtime Concert Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh University, Bristo Square, 650 2427. 1.10pm. Chamber music with the astonishingly talented pupils from St Mary’s Music School. ■ CL@Six St Cuthbert’s Church, 5 Lothian Road, 668 2019. 6pm. £12 (£5–£10). Sit out the rush hour with a Scandinavian-flavoured concert from the SCO Strings and conductor John Storgards. Nielsen’s Little Suite is followed by Sibelius’ Rakastava and Grieg’s famous Holberg Suite. ■ Scottish Opera: In the Penal Colony Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, 228 1404. 7.30pm. £14 (£6–£10). Following a sell-out visit to Edinburgh in 2009, Scottish Opera once again collaborates with Music Theatre Wales and the Traverse Theatre for a new production of Philip Glass’ chamber opera In the Penal Colony, based on Franz Kafka’s powerfully dark short story about the justice system. With an on-stage string quintet from the orchestra of Scottish Opera.
Perth ■ Das Lied von der Ende Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, 01738 621031. 7.30pm. £10–£20. William Conway conducts the Hebrides Ensemble and guests, tenor Andrew Kennedy and bass Roderick Williams in Mahler’s much-loved symphonic song cycle in Schoenberg’s arrangement for chamber ensemble.
Wednesday 17 Glasgow FREE Strathclyde University Improvisation Ensemble Strathclyde University, Jordanhill Campus, 76 Southbrae Drive, 950 3000. 1.15–2pm. Off-the-cuff musical spontaneity directed by Gerry Rossi.
Check out the GreatOffers on page 6 80 THE LIST 4–18 Nov 2010
✽✽ HITLIST
THE BEST CLASSICAL & OPERA
✽✽ Hebrides Ensemble Peter Maxwell Davies’ dramatic score Vesalii Icones, based on a Belgian book of anatomy from the 16th century, is inspiration for an evening of virtuoso performance, featuring percussionist Colin Currie, which links the Renaissance to the present day. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 9 Nov. ✽✽ Ludovico Einaudi His music is known from numerous TV and film soundtracks, but the chance to hear the enormously popular Piedmont vineyard-based composer/pianist Einaudi (pictured) live in Scotland is a rare one. Hard to categorise, his music is sort of easy-on- the-ear minimalism. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Wed 10 Nov. ✽✽ Big Guitar Weekend: John Williams in Concert World’s leading classical guitarist John Williams is star turn in the RSAMD’s Big Guitar Weekend, especially with the chance to sit down, listen and learn from him direct. Opening concert features the legend himself in recital. Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Fri 5 Nov.
out of the final version of Les Illuminations. Edinburgh FREE Scottish Opera: The Marriage of Figaro Unwrapped Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 6pm. If the thought of sitting through a full-length opera fills you with trepidation, or if you’re a seasoned opera-goer with an interest in what happens backstage, this hour-long taster prior to tomorrow’s opening of the full- length work is a perfect introduction to the workings behind the scenes and an introduction to the principal characters and plot. ■ Noisy Words Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, 228 1404. 7.15pm. £14 (£6–£10). Two of the Trav’s popular experimental arts nights come together to see what they can produce: the composers from Noisy Nights and writers from Words, Words, Words are collaborating on a performance event as part of the Autumn Festival. Writers and composers are invited to submit proposals for the night. Part of the Traverse Autumn Festival.
OPERA ADAPTATION OF KAFKA IN THE PENAL COLONY Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 16 Nov
In its second year of celebrating the best in contemporary music and dance as the seasons change, the Traverse Theatre welcomes a return joint visit from Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera to open the 2010 Autumn Festival. With a new production of Philip Glass’s disturbing chamber opera, In the Penal Colony, the autumn darkness is not that of the cosy, golden leaves type when the clocks go back, but a provocative and unsettling look at man’s inhumanity, intolerance and cruelty. Based on Franz Kafka’s short story of the same name, written in 1914, Glass’s opera is not for the faint-hearted.
There are only three characters on stage and instrumentation is for a string ensemble of just five players, but together they pack a powerful punch. The story tells of the horrific use of a complex machine that was designed not only to torture but, ultimately, to execute its victim. Actor Gerald Tyler is the Condemned Man, not that he is aware of it or of what his crime is, and whose pathway to death includes the device carving his sentence onto his skin. ‘This is Kafka,’ says Glass. ‘It’s a classic Kafka story. The strangest thing is that evidently Kafka considered these stories very funny, but, of course, we look at them as a dark, existential soul-searching kind of a thing, and they seem very modern to us.’ Musically, Glass’s setting takes the audience up close to the two key
characters – the Officer, sung by Omar Ebrahim, and the Visitor, a psychological challenge for tenor Michael Bennett, who is required to witness events and the whole gruesome experience. The score is easily recognisable as Glass, with pulsating, repeated phrases and haunting, strangely beautiful melodies that are key to the piece’s intimacy and impact. (Carol Main)
Thursday 18 Glasgow FREE Lunchtime Concert: Concerto Caledonia Glasgow University Concert Hall, University Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10pm. Singer Olivia Chaney and recorder player Pamela Thorby join the acclaimed early music group for a concert of 17th- century style entertainment, ranging from Purcell songs to traditional ballads.
■ BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: This Sceptered Isle City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7pm. £10–£23 (£8–£21). The first of the BBC SSO’s celebrations of the best of British. Walton’s Symphony No 2 rubs shoulders with Elgar’s In the South (Alassio) and Britten’s Les Illuminations, sung by soprano Susan Gritton. As well as the published score, she sings the first concert performance of Colin Matthews’ orchestration of three songs Britten left