Music CLASSICAL
MINIMAL FESTIVAL ARVO PÄRT WEEKEND City Halls, Glasgow, Sat 27 Oct; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Sun 28 Oct
Now entering its third year, Glasgow Music’s groundbreaking Minimal initiative brings a weekend of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt to City Halls and Kelvingrove. His Stabat Mater will be heard one night, with Passio, a setting of the St John Passion, the next. ‘We started Minimal with absolutely bang down the middle minimalist composers like Philip Glass, then gradually extended so that in March we included Dutch composers such as Louis Andriessen and more obscure Americans,’ says Svend Brown, Glasgow Music’s artistic director. ‘This season there will be two weekends – there’s Steve Reich in March, and as we also want to programme the opposite extreme, there is no one more appropriate than Arvo Pärt.’
Well known and popular, Pärt writes in a way where the pared down characteristic of his music fits the minimal label, reaching back to the style of ancient chants of deep spirituality. ‘It’s music that’s not difficult to approach,’ says Brown, ‘but it can be challenging to listen to.’ The performers are a particularly special feature. ‘It has been a long-
held dream of mine to invite Paul Hillier to Glasgow. His relationship with the composer is over 30 years and many pieces have been written for him,’ he says. ‘It means you’re getting really authentic performances.’ The two groups Hillier leads are Theatre of Voices, an ensemble he founded in 1990, and Danish vocal ensemble Ars Nova Copenhagen. ‘They sing two completely contrasting versions of the same story,’ says Brown. ‘The Stabat Mater is warm and lyrical, while Passio is like it’s carved from granite.’
As Brown contemplates the November weekend of Pärt, while also looking ahead to Reich in March, he says, ‘We are aiming to give a really, really intense blast of both composers, while being very much about two faces of each one.’ (Carol Main)
108 THE LIST 18 Oct–15 Nov 2012
Edinburgh FREE Lunchtime Concert St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 12.15pm. The Swedish Church Choir. Edinburgh FREE Very Wednesday St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 12.15pm. See Wed 24.
Sunday 28 Thursday 1
Glasgow FREE Glasgow Youth Choir Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Argyle Street, 276 9599. 3–4pm. Choral recital. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera in Concert St Andrews in the Square, 1 St Andrews Square, 559 5902. 3pm. £12–£9. Music by Rossini, Wagner, Mozart and Schubert (Symphony No 9 in C Major). Francesco Corti conducts. Booking essential. Theatre of Voices: Passio Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Argyle Street, 276 9599. 8pm. £15– £17.50. See panel, left. Edinburgh Children’s Classic Concerts: Mission Impossible? Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 3pm. £10–£14 (children £6–£9). Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox present movie scores for kids, performed by the RSNO. FREE St Giles’ at Six: Sang Scule – The Auld Alliance St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Vocal group celebrates the links between Scottish and French music.
Monday 29
Glasgow Viva Espana Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £7 (£5). RCS Brass Department plays music from the Iberian peninsula.
Glasgow Daniel’s Beard The Merchant House, 7 West George Street, 649 5347. 12.45pm. £8 (£7; students & children £4). Chamber recital featuring Mozart’s Horn Quintet. BBC SSO: Schubert’s Ninth Symphony City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 2pm. £9. George Butterworth’s Shropshire Lad rhapsody; Vaughan Williams’ Oboe concerto featuring Nicholas Daniel, and Schubert’s mighty Symphony No 9 in C Major. Andrew Manze conducts. Friday 2
Glasgow Professor Allan Neave Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £10.50 (£7.50). Guitar recital. Glasgow Chamber Choir New Kilpatrick Church, 28 Kirk Place, Bearsden. Tickets: at door. 7.30pm. £10 (£8). Pieces by Elgar, Howell and Leighton. Marco Ramelli Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £9 (£7). Guitar recital. Edinburgh FREE Shuann Chai St Cecilia’s Hall, Niddry Street, 668 2019. 1.10pm. Charismatic Chinese-American pianist plays Dussek, Haydn and Beethoven on the fortepiano.
Tuesday 30 Saturday 3
Glasgow FREE Glasgow University Chapel Choir: Choral Contemplations IV Glasgow University Chapel, University Avenue, 330 4092. 9pm. World premiere of Christopher Hutchings’ Requiem for All Souls. Edinburgh Metropolitan Opera: Otello Cameo, 38 Home Street, 0871 902 5723. 1pm. See Sat 27. FREE Rocio Banyuls & Audrey Innes Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, 651 3212. 1.10pm. Banyuls (saxophone) and Innes (piano) play pieces by Bennett, Feld, Grime, Piazzolla and Itturalde.
Wednesday 31 Glasgow sound lab presents: Lucy Duncombe & Kenneth Wilson with Jez Riley French City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 8pm. £6.50. Experimental music.
Glasgow Children’s Classic Concerts: Mission Impossible? Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 3pm. £10–£15 (children £6–£9; family £29–£43). See Sun 28. Junior Conservatoire Student Concert Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 4pm. £3. See Sat 27. L’Incoronazione di Poppea Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.15pm. £10–£12.50. Monteverdi’s story of an extra-marital affair that goes horribly right. Pavel Steidl Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 7.30pm. £9.50. Guitar recital. Sunday 4
Glasgow Big Guitar Weekend Showcase Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 5pm. £6. Guitar recital.
Opera. Expect the unexpected.
Get £10 tix if you’re under 26. Any seat. Any performance.
The Magic Flute 17 Oct –1 Dec Glasgow (cid:360) Aberdeen (cid:360) Inverness (cid:360) Edinburgh (cid:360) Belfast