Scotland

Bach and Bartok – Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival treats me to a musical triptych tonight at the Usher Hall, a concert in three sharply contrasting acts, delivered with precision and flair by the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer. Fischer, now in his mid-70’s and one of Europe’s most admired conductors, has the air of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing and, perhaps, is savouring these final years at the helm. Co-founder of the orchestra back in 1983 with Zoltán Kocsis, he’s built a reputation not only for musical excellence but also for a willingness to experiment, from autism-friendly “Cocoa Concerts” to informal beanbag performances. There’s an ease and playfulness in his direction, the sort of confidence that comes from a career well cemented in the history books, but still curious enough to take risks.

We begin in the company of Johann Sebastian himself. The Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D, played on baroque instruments, shimmers with that ceremonial brilliance only Bach can pull off. Fischer, eschewing the podium in favour of sitting with the players, lets the music breathe without over-wrought conducting theatrics. It is, in the best possible sense, “typical Bach”, symmetrical, noble, and built like a perfectly proportioned Palladian façade. The lighter, more transparent sound of period instruments makes this 300-year-old score feel alive again, an old friend who still has a few new stories to tell.

Then comes the gear-change, quite literally. Out go the gut strings, in come the modern instruments, and Fischer stands to deliver the UK premiere of his own Dance Suite for Violin and Orchestra, a contemporary echo of Bach’s form, stitching together bossa nova, ragtime, tango, and boogie-woogie with sly rhythmic wit. At the centre is Guy Braunstein, the first violinist, conductor and composer in his own right, who plays a 1679 Francesco Ruggieri violin. He brings a huge burst of life to the piece, his playing full of colour and character, and, when not bow in hand, throws playful “come on, move it along” gestures to his colleagues that draws warm laughter from the audience. The whole thing feels like a living conversation between past and present.

And then Act Three: Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, a lurid, modernist ballet score that scandalised audiences at its 1926 premiere with its violent and erotic subject matter. I change vantage point for this, taking advantage of the only partly filled hall to climb to the upper reaches until I am almost brushing the ornate plasterwork of the Great Hall’s ceiling. From here, I see everything almost in plain view, and the piece’s cinematic energy fills the space in vivid surround-sound. The Usher Hall’s captioning box, one of its most enlightened modern additions, comes into its own here too, tracking the tale of the hapless Mandarin, seduced, mugged, and manhandled by three tramps. If Bartók’s score is already a technicolour fever dream, seeing the story unfold in real time gives it extra bite.

Taken as a whole, the evening becomes a clever interplay of old and new: Bach’s ceremonial brilliance on instruments from his own time, Fischer’s modern homage played with the tools of ours, and Bartók’s 20th-century shocker presented with the latest in accessibility tech. In architecture, we talk about “sympathetic additions” to historic buildings, interventions that converse with the past while being unapologetically modern. That’s exactly what Fischer and his band do here.

Three-quarters full, yes, but buzzing all the same. Sometimes, the best concerts are the ones that make me feel history isn’t something in a display case, it’s alive, kicking, and, occasionally, doing the boogie-woogie.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 8^th August 2025

North West End UK Rating: