Music CLASSICAL
Wednesday 26 Glasgow Psappha RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £5.50 (£3.50). The fearless exponents of contemporary music and music theatre tackle another batch of new music by RSAMD students, along with Pierre Boulez’s serial piece Le Marteau Sans Maitre under the baton of Nicholas Kok.
Thursday 27
Glasgow BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: JS Bach and Bruckner City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £10–£23. Ilan Volkov conducts an exulting programme with violinist Daniel Hope, setting the gentle Violin Concerto in A Minor C15 by Bach alongside the magisterial gravitas of Bruckner’s Symphony No 5 C77.
Edinburgh ✽✽ Hebrides Ensemble St George’s West Church, 58 Shandwick Place, 668 2019. 6pm. £10 (students/under 25s £6). Second in a series of rush-hour concerts pairing pieces by Mozart with modern compositions. Today it’s James MacMillan’s 1991 creation Tuireadh for Clarinet and String Quartet as a companion piece to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A K581. The Cunning Little Vixen Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13–29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.15pm. £13.50–£21.50. See Fri 21. Scottish Chamber Orchestra: New Romantics III The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.30pm. £9–£27 (concessions available). Conductor Joseph Swensen leads the SCO through Copland’s expansive, idyllic Appalachian Spring, Delius’ The Walk to Paradise Garden (which loses an element of drama when you realise that ‘Paradise Garden’ is in fact a pub), Adams’ marvellous and vibrant Shaker Loops, and Isabelle van Keulen is soloist in Walton’s Viola Concerto.
Friday 28
Glasgow Westbourne Music Merchants House, 7 West George Street, 649 5347. 12.45pm. £7 (£3/£6). Two of Scotland’s most starry young guitarists, Sean Shibe and Ian Watt, pair up for a lunchtime recital. Blind Piper of Gairloch with Barnaby Brown RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £10.50 (£7.50). A celebration of the music and poetry of 18th-century piper Iain Dall MacKay, featuring Irish early clarsach expert Siobhán Armstrong along with Griogair Labhraidh and Barnaby Brown on pipes and voice. The concert marks the official donation of Iain Dall’s charter to the National Museum of Scotland. Scottish Chamber Orchestra: New Romantics III City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £11.50–£25 (concessions available). See Thu 27. Edinburgh FREE Organ Recital Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh University Bristo Square, 650 2427. 1.10pm. Music from Dunblane organist Matthew Beetschen including pieces by Boehm, Russell and Buxtehude. RSNO: Great Symphonies – Rachmaninov Two Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £10–£32 (concessions available). A mischievous opening to this concert in Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is followed by Knussen’s Baroque- influenced Violin Concerto, starring Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz. The evening culminates in the luscious Romanticism of Rachmaninov’s second symphony. Stéphane Denève conducts.
76 THE LIST 20 Jan–3 Feb 2011
Perth Alasdair Beatson Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, 01738 621031. 7.30pm. £10–£20 (£8–£18). The young pianist performs works by Fauré, Mendelssohn and Beethoven alongside the Sonata by Dutilleux.
Saturday 29 Glasgow RSNO: Great Symphonies – Rachmaninov Two Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £10–£32 (concessions available). See Fri 28. Naked Opera Mugdock Country Park, Craigallian Road, Milngavie, 956 6100. 7.45pm. £11 (£10). Opera and comedy combine in this evening of musical entertainment, which stars fast-talking prima donna Alison Barton. Ticket price includes glass of wine. Booking essential.
Comic Strip Opera
Edinburgh The Cunning Little Vixen Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13–29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.15pm. £13.50–£21.50. See Fri 21.
Sunday 30
Glasgow FREE Kelvingrove Sunday Organ Recitals Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Argyle Street, 276 9599. 3–3.45pm. See Sun 23. Edinburgh Alasdair Cameron The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.30pm. £12 (£7). The man described by Glasgow Cultural Enterprises as ‘one of Scotland’s foremost pianists’ performs works by Mozart, Brahms, Schubert and Liszt. Scottish Sinfonia St Cuthbert’s Church, 5 Lothian Road, 229 1142. 7.45pm. £12 (£10; children £3). Neil
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 21, Sat 22 Jan; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Thu 27, Sat 29 Jan
Building on collaborative achievements of the past few years, Scottish Opera and the RSAMD now turn to Janácek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen. Set in a forest, its characters are both animal and human. Inspired by a comic strip from a newspaper, it’s not so funny when the vixen becomes a fox fur wedding present. Composed when the 70 year-old Janácek was smitten by a woman less than half his age, the opera is reflective of his own situation and the perpetual themes of life, death and love.
In reviving David Pountney’s Scottish Opera/Welsh National Opera’s co-production from 1980, the cast features three singers from Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists Programme. RSAMD graduate singers are given a year of full-time work to help kickstart their careers. Rebecca Afonwy-Jones sings the part of the fox, having had hardly any time to draw breath since playing the title role in a Carmen which toured the length and breadth of the country. ‘It’s been quite a few months for me,’ she says, ‘especially as Carmen is at the bottom of my range and the fox is at the top. But I’m in love with Janácek and although it’s a really tough sing, it’s glorious music.’
The orchestra is a mix of Scottish Opera professionals and RSAMD students, with solo parts given to the emerging artists and singers from the opera school. ‘It’s a terrific opportunity for your career,’ says Afonwy-Jones, ‘as you wouldn’t get these big roles otherwise. It makes you more employable.’ With the wide range of experience offered by the emerging artists programme, singers who are part of it are ready for anything, although, as Afonwy-Jones says, ‘the irony is we’re working so much that we don’t really have time to go to auditions for what we’re going to do next!’ (Carol Main)
Mantle is the soloist for this performance of Nielsen’s Helios Overture, Sibelius’ Symphony No 7 in C Major, Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Strauss’ Horn Concerto No 1. Anthony Halstead conducts.
Monday 31
Glasgow RSAMD Keyboard Department Showcase RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £6.50 (£4.50). Students from the music school display their accomplishments. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Sacred and Profane 1 City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 2pm. £10–£23 (£8–£21). Diego Masson conducts the orchestra through Messiaen’s magnificent meditative series L’Ascencion. Edinburgh Edinburgh Napier University Composers’ Concert St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Retiring collection. The première of three new compositions created for the Edinburgh Quartet by Napier University students Fraser Burke, Steven Kelly and Steven Sneddon, featuring solo performances from Fraser Burke on piano and clarinettist Katie Richardson. Edinburgh Quartet: Stockbridge Series Stockbridge Parish Church, 7b Saxe Coburg Street, 332 0122. 7.30pm. £tbc. Mozart’s Quartet in G K387, Bedrich Smetana’s Quartet No 1 in E Minor – From my Life – and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in A Minor Op 13. Artas Ensemble The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.45pm. £11–£19 (concessions available). The London-based ensemble performs Boccherini’s String Quintet Op 37 No 7, Beethoven’s String Trio Op 9 in C Minor and Schubert’s String Quintet in C D956, led by violinist Jennifer Pike.
Tuesday 1
Glasgow Late Great Beethoven Ramshorn Theatre, 98 Ingram Street, 552 3489. 1.15pm. £4. Cellist Sebastian Comberti and pianist Katharine Durran return to the Ramshorn to perform both of Beethoven’s powerful and concise Cello Sonatas Op 102. Edinburgh FREE Morwenna Del Mar and Simon Smith Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square, 650 2427. 1.10pm. Cellist Morwenna Del Mar performs Arvo Pärt’s reflective work Spiegel in Spiegel alongside the great James MacMillan’s Cello Sonata No 1 and the Alleluia Pascha Nostrum by Leighton, accompanied by Simon Smith on the piano. Scottish Chamber Orchestra CL@Six St Cuthbert’s Church, 5 Lothian Road, 229 1142. 6pm. £12 (£10). Alexander Janiczek conducts an early evening concert of Mozart’s Overture: Impresario and Violin Concerto No 2 K211 followed by Haydn’s popular Symphony No 103 (‘Drumroll’). Matthew Barley: The Virtual Cellist The Queen’s Hall, 87–89 Clerk Street, 668 2019. 7.45pm. £10 (£7). Bach preludes meet jazz improv in an adventurous programme set against an interactive backdrop of projected images and sequences. Presented by ecat.
Thursday 3 Glasgow RSAMD Wind Orchestra RSAMD, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £5.50 (£3.50). A concert in tribute to the Australian composer and inventor Percy Grainger, who died 50 years ago on this day. The programme also features music by Grieg and Canadian composer Derek Healey.