Usher Hall Archives - North West End UK

Berliner Philharmoniker Residency — Usher Hall

3Sep

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Berliner Philharmoniker Residency — Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival closed in spectacular fashion with a performance by the world-renowned Berliner Philharmoniker, an orchestra described by the Los Angeles Times as “the greatest orchestra in the world.” At the Usher Hall, the orchestra was conducted by Kirill Petrenko, its Chief Conductor since 2019, in a programme featuring two major works of the orchestral repertoire: Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor. The concert lasted around two hours, with one interval, and provided a magnificent conclusion to the festival. Elgar — Enigma Variations The first half began with Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Op. 36. The work opens with the theme, marked Andante, followed by fourteen variations, each portraying someone from Elgar’s circle. Rath...

The Golden Age of Hollywood – Usher Hall

25Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Golden Age of Hollywood – Usher Hall

Well, this was something special, what a sound! And I have a particular reason for loving the sound of an orchestra arriving beneath a musical. Having been involved in numerous amateur musical productions over the years, one of the moments our cast always looked forward to was band day. Usually sometime during the final week, because that was all we could afford, the musicians would finally arrive. Suddenly, the show we had rehearsed for months acquired another dimension. Everything lifted. The Golden Age of Hollywood was band day times ten! John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London make their Edinburgh International Festival debut at the Usher Hall with an evening devoted to the great Hollywood musical tradition, much of it reconstructed from original MGM orchestrations which Wils...

17Aug

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Mozart’s Don Giovanni – Usher Hall

The Scottish Chamber Opera dazzles again with its high-spirited rendition of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Edinburgh International Festival. Conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev, the show continues the SCO’s highly acclaimed series of Mozart operas at the festival. Part raunchy comedy, part high drama, Don Giovanni tells the story of a dissolute Spanish nobleman whose penchant for womanising and bloodshed brings him to a grisly end. Act I opens with Don Giovanni murdering Il Commendatore after a failed attempt to bed the old man’s daughter, Donna Anna. Konstantin Krimmel plays a leonine, bombastic Don Giovanni, who is at times slick with charisma, at times laughably pompous. His Canzonetta in Act II (“Deh, vieni alla finestra”), sung with elegance and tenderness, is a particularly memo...

Beethoven 7 & Ortiz: Los Angeles Philharmonic – Usher Hall

15Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Beethoven 7 & Ortiz: Los Angeles Philharmonic – Usher Hall

Marked as one of the definitive anchor classical events of the 2026 Edinburgh International Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s appearance at Usher Hall was an evening of striking contrasts. Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra presented Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 alongside Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina, a work inspired by Mexico City’s 2019 Glitter Revolution and its protests against violence towards women. The 1 hour 45 minute concert, with one interval, was the first of three appearances by the LA Philharmonic at this year’s Festival. It also carried a particular sense of occasion. Dudamel, who has led the orchestra for seventeen years, is coming to the end of his remarkable tenure before taking up his new role with the New York Philharmonic. His long-standing re...

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

This Shining Night – Usher Hall

The concert begins and ends beneath the same shining night, Samuel Barber first contemplating James Agee’s stars, Morten Lauridsen returning us to them at the conclusion. Much has happened in the darkness between. This Shining Night, part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s celebration of choral music, brings the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to the Usher Hall under conductor Sofi Jeannin for a journey through American choral music. It is an intelligently constructed programme; one whose dramatic shape only becomes fully apparent as the evening unfolds. It starts quietly enough. Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night, his 1938 setting of Agee’s poetry, establishes the idea which will eventually bring us full circle. There are beauty and restraint here, but initially I find my...

13Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

JLCO Plays Duke Ellington – Usher Hall

The Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra Residency brought us a night of Duke Ellington’s greatest compositions, directed by esteemed trumpeter and founder of JLCO, Wynton Marsalis. Seeing as the theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is ‘All Rise’ – tied to the 250th anniversary of America’s independence – an American ensemble playing the works of one of the most prolific American composers seems only fitting. Especially when we get to the second act of the performance where the sole focus is on Ellington’s Black, Brown, and Beige, conducted by Chris Crenshaw. This suite tells the story of the hardships of the Black American, from slavery to segregation, and eventually emancipation. Alongside the JLCO, musical guests were invited to perform, including EIF’s dire...

12Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Gershwin and Bartok – Usher Hall

Sometimes during the Edinburgh festivals, you simply need a little space. After days spent rushing between Fringe venues, squeezing into small rooms and watching theatre at increasingly close quarters, there is something wonderfully restorative about walking into the Usher Hall and finding the stage filled by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. And I mean filled. Under conductor Karina Canellakis, this remarkable collection of young American musicians produces an enormous, confident and wonderfully optimistic sound. The scale of the string section alone is extraordinary, stretching seemingly endlessly across the stage. They look magnificent too. Black jackets sit above striking blood red trousers, the whole orchestra beautifully colour coordinated, whi...

Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes – Usher Hall

12Dec

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Tchaikovsky’s Heroines & Heroes – Usher Hall

This concert comprises scenes from three of Tchaikovsky’s greatest operas, each with a compelling female character at its heart. Their stories of forbidden love echo the composer’s own heartache from living as a gay man in a homophobic culture. In the aria Da, Chas Nastall from Act 1 of The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc (Natalia Kutateladze), bids a bittersweet farewell to her homeland. “You meadows and trees, my foster children, you will blossom and wither without me.” The music, and the performance, are filled with drama and passion, contrasting Joan’s intimacy with her childhood landscape, and the bloodstained violence of the battlefield to come. I was struck by the resolute strength that Kutateladze brought to the character. In a scene from Iolanta, Vaudémont (Robert Lewis) falls ...

23Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Bernstein and Stravinsky – Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival welcomed the return of conductor Karina Canellakis, who lit up Usher Hall with her energetic presence on the podium. Following her stunning debut at the closing concert of the 2023 Festival, her comeback was highly anticipated – and she more than lived up to expectations. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus director James Grossmith created an evening of music that was both dazzling and deeply emotional. The 95-minute piece, performed with one interval, started with the vulnerability of the violin voice, expanding incrementally out to the full forces of the orchestra before the chorus entered. The uncomplicated layering of massed choral voices over instruments gave an intimacy merged with something divine. The performance con...

Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony – Usher Hall

17Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony – Usher Hall

As part of the London Symphony Orchestra residency with the Edinburgh International Festival, A Sea Symphony drew a sold-out crowd to the Usher Hall. This landmark performance brought together the orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano with sonic leviathan Edinburgh Festival Chorus, for a night of sweeping musical ambition and deeply human emotional resonance. The two hours and five minutes including one interval performances commenced with an eight-minute glorious Nocturne that set an atmosphere of restrained anticipation. This was followed by a ten-minute violin solo from Vilde Frang, whose music instantly won over the hearts of the audience. She put out stunning technical accuracy coupled with warmth to secure a three-minute ovation—an initial highlight which promised much more magic a...