MUSIC | CLASSICAL C L A S S I C A L
ORCHESTRAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF INDIA Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 24 Feb
Classical music in India usually brings to mind traditions such as Carnatic or Hindustani music, but there is a growing interest in Western classical music, with the first and only fully professional orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of India, founded in 2006. The orchestra makes its UK debut with a six-concert tour in
February. One of the main driving forces behind it is violinist/ conductor Marat Bisengaliev. ‘We are all so excited about it, especially our Indian players,’ says Bisengaliev. It was when Khushroo Suntook, chairman of the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, heard Bisengaliev’s West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra in London, that he thought he would invite them over to the centre, with the success of the visit paving the way for a new orchestra formed of Kazakh and Indian musicians. ‘We were in an old-style café’ says Bisengaliev, ‘when over a cup of tea we thought, why don’t we start something amazing, the first professional orchestra in India. It’s ridiculous to think that back then there wasn’t one. I listened to over 100 musicians all over India, mainly self-taught, and discovered some incredible talent.’
Always insistent that the quality of music-making would never be compromised, Bisengaliev invited other international musicians to stay full-time in India and brought them together with the Indian instrumentalists on ‘a sort of orchestral crash course.’ At first only a few met his stringent audition standards, but there are now ten fully employed Indian musicians in the orchestra and others are recruited as needed from a growing pool of local talent, supported by the orchestra’s music school for up to 50 Indian children. Apart from the quality of the music, Bisengaliev’s top priority is that the players have good working relationships. ‘It’s a happy orchestra, and that’s one of its most important qualities.’ (Carol Main)
CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS
HITLIST
SCOTTISH OPERA: ANTHROPOCENE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 2 Feb, capitaltheatres. com Brand new opera from composer Stuart MacRae and writer Louise Welsh inspired by the Anthropocene age, the geological era marking the destructive impact humans have made on the planet. A scientific research trip to Greenland makes a surprising find.
RSNO: SØNDERGÅRD AND BENEDETTI Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 9 Feb, glasgowconcerthalls.com Not long back from touring together in China, the RSNO, their music director Thomas Søndergård and violinist Nicola Benedetti come together again to perform the Scottish premiere of Marsalis’ Concerto in D. Also Caird Hall, Dundee, Thu 7 Feb; Usher Hall, Edinburgh Fri 8 Feb.
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GLASGOW EDINBURGH
SCO: SIR JAMES MACMILLAN 60TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT City Halls, Fri 22 Feb, sco.org. uk The composer conducts a celebratory concert of his much- performed percussion concerto Veni Veni Emmanuel, commissioned by the SCO in 1992 for Evelyn Glennie as soloist and now with Colin Currie in the starring role, along with Seven Last Words from the Cross, for which the orchestra is joined by the SCO Chorus. Also Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 21 Feb.
RSNO: CARMINA BURANA Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sat 9 Mar, glasgowconcerthalls. com/glasgow-royal-concert-hall The texts may have been written by medieval monks but they were only human after all and the RSNO are champing at the bit to do justice to Carmina Burana’s sex, drink and roasted swans. It’s music that’s great fun, colourful and will be quite a contrast to the Beethoven concerto which precedes it, performed by soloist Can Cakmur, winner of the 2017 Scottish International Piano Competition. Also Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Fri 8 Mar.
PAUL LEWIS Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 11 Feb, thequeenshall.net Rare chance to hear the brilliant pianist Paul Lewis, who returns to Edinburgh to conclude his Haydn-Beethoven- Brahms cycle. The equivalent recital in London received 5-star reviews and if you want to hear more of him, he is back for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on 14 & 15 Mar.
WINTERPLAY Queen’s Hall, Sat 16 Feb, thequeenshall.net A festive day of four events culminating with a full-length concert of three of the greatest piano trios in the repertoire, namely Beethoven’s Op 70 No 1 – Ghost – along with Elegy by Suk and Schubert’s E flat trio. Beforehand, a workshop for children in the morning, an
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afternoon of Tchaikovsky’s piano pieces The Seasons, interspersed with paired readings, and a talk by music historian Robert Philip. All the brainchild of pianist Susan Tomes.
GARLETON SINGERS: ALEXANDER’S FEAST St Cuthbert’s Church, Sat 23 Mar East Lothian choir make a visit to Edinburgh for a city-centre performance of Handel’s glorious oratorio, Alexander’s Feast, with special additions of guest soloists and small orchestra. With a libretto originally written to celebrate St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, it tells the story of the great banquet hosted by Alexander the Great and his Greek lover Thais.
METROPOLITAN OPERA LIVE: LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT Various venues & locations, Sat 2 Mar Live from the Met and, with a bit of luck, at a cinema near you, Rossini’s sparkling opera, full of wit and invention, is studded with stars for its vocal pyrotechnics. Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende lead the team, including Camarena rising to the challenge of no fewer than nine high Cs in the aria ‘Ah! Mes Amis’.