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world’s first feature-length animated film, with a live soundtrack from the celebrated bass player and composer Renaud Garcia-Fons as well as his merry band. sound lab presents Gregor SAMSA City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 8pm. £6. A night of progressive new music from Glasgow-based musicians, featuring work from Alexander Horowitz, Euan Ferguson, Matt Zurowski and Thomas K Butler. Edinburgh Edinburgh Quartet St Andrew’s and St George’s Church, 13 George Street, 225 3847. 5.30–6.30pm. £10 (students free; children free; members £9). Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op 44 No 1 and extracts from J S Bach’s The Art of Fugue.
Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10–2pm. Arvo Pärt’s Mozart-Adagio and Beethoven’s Trio Op 97 ‘Archduke’. BBC SSO: Dvorák’s New World Symphony City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £11.50–£24.50. Thomas Dausgaard conducts Nielsen, Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto with soloist Pekka Kuusisto and finally Dvorák’s crowd-pleaser. Edinburgh Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Ticciati Conducts Mahler Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £10–£31. The world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s harp concerto Aelous, featuring Naoko Yoshino, is followed by Mahler’s Symphony No 4 with mezzo- soprano Karen Cargill.
Friday 10
American music from the wind department. Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Ticciati Conducts Mahler City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £12.50–£28.50. See Thu 9. Quartetto di Cremona Cairns Church, Milngavie, 942 3102. 7.30pm. £12 (£5–free). A series of string quartets by Boccherini and Beethoven, Shostakovich (Quartet No 10), and Fabio Vacchi. Edinburgh RSNO: Elgar’s Cello Concerto Usher Hall, Lothian Road, 228 1155. 7.30pm. £12–£37 (£6–£18.50). Elgar’s popular Concerto features principal cellist Aleksei Kiseliov. There’s also Bruckner’s Symphony No 7 and Mozart’s effervescent Overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Peter Oundjian conducts.
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Thursday 9 Glasgow FREE The Da Vinci Trio Glasgow University Concert Hall, University
Glasgow Wind Orchestra: Strictly Come Dancing . . . in America Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £8.50–£11.00.
RUSSIAN SERIES BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA City Halls, Glasgow, Thu 25 Sep; Aberdeen Music Hall, Fri 26 Sep; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 28 Sep
What a title for a concert series: Shostakovich 5, 10, 15. There won’t be a 20 though, as Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his last symphony, No 15, in 1971, just a few years before his death. Taking the symphonies over the course of three stunning concert programmes, the BBC SSO focuses on music written at critical times in the composer’s life. With chief conductor Donald Runnicles, the Tenth Symphony opens the series in the company of fellow Russian composers, Mussorgsky and his popular Night on the Bare Mountain, and the increasingly heard Scriabin, with Irish pianist Barry Douglas appearing as soloist in his Piano Concerto.
Intensely exciting, the Tenth Symphony was written in 1953 following the death of Stalin, and has a sense of the freedom and relief that Shostakovich felt as political and artistic oppression was lifted. ‘I think that one of the most unique aspects of the symphonies of Shostakovich is the fact that he was an historical witness to the phenomenal happenings in Russia from the early 20th century through to when he died,’ says Runnicles.
The brutality of Stalin’s regime is felt most acutely in the loud and frenzied second movement. Shostakovich, like so many others, lived in fear under the Communist regime. His music didn’t always suit the authorities, and there was the ever-present threat that he would suddenly disappear the same way as other artists as a result. ‘One can see some indication, that doesn’t have to be specific or an event, but of how he related to the world in which he lived,’ says Runnicles. ‘There is a palpable feeling of relief and at the same time, what is going to change? But the symphony certainly ends triumphantly: an era has finally come to an end.’ (Carol Main)
Saturday 11
Glasgow RSNO: Elgar’s Cello Concerto Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £12–£35 (£6–£37.50). See Fri 10. Edinburgh The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments St Andrew’s and St George’s Church, 13 George Street, 225 3847. 7.45pm. £18 (£16; students/children/unwaged £5). Elizabethan music and dance this evening. Promoted by the Georgian Concert Society.
Oban Scottish Opera: Verdi’s Macbeth Corran Halls, The Esplanade, 01631 567333. 7.30pm. £5–£14. See Thu 25. Sunday 12
Glasgow High Heels and Horse Hair: Transplanted Greenbank Garden, Flenders Road, Clarkston, 08444 932201. 1.30pm & 4pm. £10 (students & children £5). New music by David Fennessy, Martin Kershaw, Stuart MacRae, Eddie McGuire, Chris Stout, Hanna Tuulikki, David Ward and Judith Weir. Merchant Voices Summer Concert City Halls, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 7.30pm. £10 (under 12s free). Stephen Langston conducts Poulenc’s Gloria and Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande, with a selection of choral pieces. Featuring guest pianist Gilmour Macleod.
Monday 13 Glasgow Strings Showcase Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, 332 5057. 1pm. £7.50–£9.50. This lunchtime, why not enjoy a string department showcase?
Tuesday 14
Glasgow Clint Mansell The Old Fruitmarket, Candleriggs, 353 8000. 8pm. £25. Atmospheric film music from the composer, performing with the Sonus Quartet. Edinburgh FREE Edinburgh Quartet Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square, 651 4336. 1.10pm. The Edinburgh Quartet bring us Schumann’s String Quartet Op 41 and excerpts from Bach’s Art of Fugue.
Wednesday 15
Glasgow ✽ Scottish Opera: La Cenerentola Theatre Royal, 282
Hope Street, 0844 871 7647. 7.15pm. £10–£76. Rossini’s take on the Cinderella story. Russian soprano Victoria Yarovaya
✽ Alison Balsom What is there not to like about
Alison Balsom (pictured)? She’s a fabulously virtuosic trumpeter and three-time Classic Brit winner, and her first headline UK tour, The Trumpet Sings, is billed as ‘an unexpected journey through Paris, from spring to autumn’. Sensational stuff. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 30 Sep.
✽ The Beethoven Project Total immersion is an
intoxicating way to listen to and learn about Beethoven’s extraordinary music, especially in the hands of such outstanding performers as Llyr Williams (piano) and the Elias Quartet. For three days, it’s Beethoven bonanza time in Glasgow this month. City Halls, Glasgow, Fri 26–Sun 28 Sep.
✽ La Cenerentola Scottish Opera opens its 2014–15
season with a Rossini favourite, giving a bit of a darker, more psychological twist to the popular Cinderella fairytale, and rather more to think about than the familiar childhood story. Who is Cinderella? What’s her identity and why does she need a new one? Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wed 15 Oct.
is the title character, with Nico Darmanin as Ramiro.
St Andrews Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Haydn and Mahler Younger Hall, North Street, 01334 462226. 7.30pm. £13–£22. Hosokawa’s Meditation is followed by Mahler’s Blumine and the great Kindertotenlieder song cycle, featuring Karen Cargill. Plus Haydn’s Symphony No 104. Robin Ticciati conducts. Thursday 16
Glasgow Andrew McTaggart Merchants House of Glasgow, 7 West George Street, 221 1876. 12.45pm. £8 (£7; students & children £4). This emerging baritone performs from A Century of English Song. FREE Edinburgh Quartet Glasgow University Concert Hall, University Avenue, 330 4092. 1.10pm. Schumann’s String Quartet No 3 in A Major, Op 41 and excerpts from Bach’s The Art of Fugue. 18 Sep–16 Oct 2014 THE LIST 87