Scotland
Nicky and Wynton: The Making of a Concerto, BBC FourSaturday, 29 October 2016
Two personable musicians, who win on all fronts: at the pinnacle of their highly competitive and skilled professions, highly articulate, and perhaps unlikely partners in their art. In one corner, ladies and gentlemen, the composer, world-leading... Read more... |
MacMillan's Stabat Mater, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia, Barbican HallMonday, 17 October 2016
No living composer writes more compellingly for choir or for strings than James MacMillan (a surprisingly accepted "Sir" is now an optional addition to the name). This beautifully planned programme's first half gave us the former, a cappella choral... Read more... |
Crude, Shed 36, Port of DundeeThursday, 13 October 2016
It’s not often you need a passport to get into a theatre show. But then the journey required to get to Scottish site-specific experts Grid Iron’s Crude does feel like something of a pilgrimage – first get yourself to Dundee, then find the Science... Read more... |
Mozart's Last Symphonies, SCO, Ticciati, Usher Hall, EdinburghFriday, 07 October 2016
His transformational Brahms series with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra may have been truncated by slipped disc troubles - he was much missed at Glyndebourne too - but Robin Ticciati is back with renewed energy and purpose. To judge from the... Read more... |
The Suppliant Women, Royal Lyceum Theatre, EdinburghThursday, 06 October 2016
Fleeing rape and forced marriage in their war-torn homeland, a boatload of women refugees washes up in Greece, where they beg asylum from the suspicious locals. No, not a depressingly familiar news story of our own times, but the basis of Aeschylus’... Read more... |
10 Questions for Conductor Thomas DausgaardThursday, 29 September 2016
One of two Danish Thomases at the head of BBC bands (compatriot Thomas Søndergård is at the helm of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales), Thomas Dausgaard joins the Glasgow-based BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor this season.... Read more... |
Lammermuir Festival 2016, East LothianSunday, 25 September 2016
It’s just a short trip down the A1 from Edinburgh. But East Lothian – with its big skies, wide-open spaces, empty beaches and seemingly inexhaustable supply of quaint, historic villages – feels like a long, long way from the Scottish capital.... Read more... |
Scottish MusselMonday, 19 September 2016
A single, lonely star might seem harsh for what is first-time director (and writer, and lead) Talulah Riley’s woeful debut feature. And it’s true that, if nothing else, the St Trinian’s franchise star packs a lot into her Scottish Mussel.Like an... Read more... |
CD: Pictish Trail - Future EchoesMonday, 05 September 2016
Johnny Lynch – the artist otherwise known as Pictish Trail – is one of the country’s most intriguing musicians. In 2010, he upped sticks and moved into a caravan on the remote island of Eigg, ensuring every appraisal of his work evermore would refer... Read more... |
One of Us, BBC OneWednesday, 31 August 2016
“One of us is crying/ One of us is lying/ In her lonely bed/ Staring at the ceiling/ Wishing she was somewhere else instead…” Poor Juliet Stevenson must have wondered how she’d ended up like the girl in the Abba song – waiting for a call from her... Read more... |
CD: King Creosote - Astronaut Meets ApplemanMonday, 29 August 2016
While there will, if there is any justice, be plenty written about King Creosote’s Astronaut Meets Appleman, few will probably state what to me is obvious: this is a really, really sexy record. Now, being Scottish, I’m perhaps predisposed to believe... Read more... |
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National TheatreThursday, 11 August 2016
If you like the feeling of leaving a show, surrounded by the gently glowing faces of happy fellow audience members, then this is one for you. It’s a musical evening full of joyful singing – mixing classics by Mendelssohn and Bartok with a best-of... Read more... |
