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Jan 17, 2025 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
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Dec 8, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
For last weekend’s programme, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra invited two guest artists who already know them well, and the warmth of the chemistry between them was a joy to hear. Violinist Randall Goosby has played with them only once before, but he created such a spark that he has been invited back as artist-in-residence for this season. For this concert he chose Samuel Barber’s violin concerto, a piece that was perfectly tailored to all of Goosby’s expressive gifts.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
Though it still looks like a shiny visitor that has landed from outer space, the Glasshouse in Gateshead has sat proudly on the south bank of the River Tyne for 20 years now, and this weekend launched its anniversary celebrations in a typically big-hearted manner. The concert hall’s glass exterior wall is like a metaphor for how open and inclusive the venue wants to be.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
If you’re a regular reader of music reviews in The Times then you might already have November 22 circled on your calendar as Saint Cecilia’s Day. She’s the patron saint of music, and commemorating her has given composers down the centuries an excuse to show off their talents and celebrate their art. Most famous of those in the English-speaking world is Henry Purcell, whose 1692 ode Hail! Bright Cecilia was the centrepiece of this saint’s-day celebration in Edinburgh.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
This weekend the Nordic Music Days festival took place in Scotland for the first time, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s main contribution featured a Danish conductor, a star soloist and a fistful of premieres. All it needed was some good music to play, and it got it … mostly. The concert’s centrepiece was a letdown, however.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
It was when my pal, Andrew Roache, turned pale and started to swear that I knew things were serious. Both keen hill-walkers, we had driven up to Kintail in July for our annual weekend in the Highlands. This year’s target was the Five Sisters ridge, but the going on it was getting slippery underfoot. Coming down off Sgurr na Carnach, Sister No 2, I lost my footing. I’ve fallen on mountains before but this was different: the ground simply disappearing, the awful sense of losing control.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
Fresh from winning the classical prize at this year’s Sky Arts Awards, the Cumnock Tryst marks its tenth anniversary this year. Ever since he founded this music festival in the Ayrshire town where he grew up, the aim of the composer James MacMillan has been to bring together professional musicians and enthusiastic local amateur groups in a way that brought the best out of all of them, and their big anniversary concert last weekend did that with effusive, joyous inclusiveness.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
The highlight of the classical music programme at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival was the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte. Bursting with drama and musical mischief, it brought out the best in both the orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev, its principal conductor.
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Aug 11, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Simon Thompson
★★★★★Very unusually for them, almost all of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s work in the Edinburgh International Festival this year is in the world of opera. They served as the theatre orchestra for the Opéra Comique’s Carmen, and were unleashed from the pit to take centre stage for the Usher Hall’s concert staging of Così fan tutte. Based on their work over the past seven days, the SCO would give any full-time opera company a run for their money, so vibrantly expressive has their playing been.
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Aug 4, 2024 | 
thetimes.com | Anya Ryan |Allan Radcliffe |Richard Morrison |Simon Thompson
Overwhelmed by flyers on the Mile? Lost in the zillions of options as to what to see during your time in the Scottish capital? We’ve compiled our reviews of the 2024 Edinburgh Festival and Fringe theatre, music and dance shows (if you’re looking for comedy recommendations, we have a separate list). It’s ranked according to rating, from five stars downwards and the booking details are there too: do check what is still available. This page will be updated every day in August so make sure you save it.
