Tours, new concert concepts, Proms and festival appearances - the RSNO’s diverse schedule for Summer PDF Print E-mail


The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s (RSNO) summer calendar sees the musicians embark on a six city tour of Spain, present an eclectic three-concert festival in Glasgow – orchestra+, perform the traditional Scottish Prom concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, take part in two major events at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, return to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for two concerts, perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the BBC Proms 2008 and also present a special free pre-Prom concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

 


 

The RSNO Spain Tour 2008 – Monday 19 May to Monday 26 May 2008
In May the RSNO embarks on the third tour of Spain in its history.  The Orchestra was invited to return following the success of its second Spanish tour in 2001 and in 2008 it will perform six concerts in eight days from Monday 19 to Monday 26 May.  The RSNO Spain Tour 2008 holds a special significance as it will be the first time Scotland’s national orchestra will perform abroad with Scottish virtuosic sensation - and recent Classical Brit recipient - violinist Nicola Benedetti, who will be performing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.  Elsewhere the programme acknowledges the Orchestra’s home and host countries: Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Debussy’s Ibéria, with Ravel’s Viennese-inspired La Valse concludes the tour programme.

 

This is the second continental tour undertaken by Music Director Stéphane Denève and the RSNO, having performed to sell-out venues in Germany, Austria and Croatia with American violinist Hilary Hahn earlier this year.  It commences in the southern-east city of Murcia at the Auditorio de Murcia, visiting Pamplona at the Auditorio Baluarte, Salamanca at the Centrode de las Artes, Leon at the Ciudad de Leon, the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid; the final concert being held at the Auditorio de Zaragoza in the Aragon capital. 

 

orchestra+  - The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Thursday 19 June to Thursday 26 June 2008
From Thursday 19 June the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) will collaborate with artists as eclectic as Elvis Costello, hip-hop DJ Beni G and the leading video games composers in orchestra+, a three-concert series at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. 
In association with stv, orchestra+ explores the synergies between orchestral music and that of three different genres: club music (Concerto for Turntables, Thursday 19 June, 2008), pop and rock (Elvis Costello and the RSNO, Saturday 21 June 2008) and music composed for the world of computer, arcade and video games (Video Games Live, Thursday 26 June 2008).

 

The RSNO Scottish Prom – The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saturday 28 June 2008, 7.30pm
The RSNO Scottish Prom, formerly The Last Night of the Scottish Proms, is an evening of popular classical music and Scottish songs and anthems, with special guest soloists, the RSNO Chorus and a pipe band. A keenly anticipated evening in the Scottish orchestral calendar, this year the RSNO Scottish Prom features the prodigious British clarinettist Julian Bliss, described by The Daily Telegraph as “The Wayne Rooney of the clarinet”. The Orchestra, led by long-standing associate Garry Walker, will also be joined on stage by presenter for the evening, impressionist and comedian Jonathan Watson.

 

Edinburgh International Festival appearances – Friday 8 August, 7.00pm, Monday 18 August, 8.00pm
The RSNO opens this year’s Edinburgh International Festival with a performance of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, a truly 20th Century opera which melds a heady mix of cabaret, jazz and neo-classicism. From composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht, Mahagonny is a satirical drama on the nature of desire, and features the classic ballad Moon of Alabama.   A stellar cast, including Susan Bickley as Leokadja Begbick and Sir Willard White as Trinity Moses, is led by composer, conductor and legendary Weill interpreter HK Gruber.
The 20th century Swiss composer Arthur Honegger’s dramatic oratorio Le Roi David marks the Orchestra’s second appearance at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.  RSNO Music Director Stéphane Denève, who leads a glittering cast of soloists, will also be working with RSNO Junior Chorus Master Christopher Bell for the first time in his position as Chorus Master of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.


The RSNO Kelvingrove Concerts – Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Friday 22 August and Saturday 23 August 2008, 8.00pm
The Orchestra returns to Scotland’s most popular tourist attraction in August following its sell-out performances at the venue last year. This year’s programme has been chosen to take full advantage of the building’s dynamic acoustic. Written for two antiphonal brass ensembles, 16th century composer Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sonata Pian’e Forte will be followed by the contrasting sounds of the RSNO strings performing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.  After the interval, during which guests are free to wander through the gallery at their leisure, the Orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms Symphony No4, generally considered to be the German Romantic’s magnum opus. 
Free Pre-Prom Concert – The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Thursday 4 September 2008, 12.45pm

 

The RSNO and Music Director Stéphane Denève will perform a free lunchtime concert in Glasgow as a taster to its appearance at this year’s BBC Proms.  The programme presents two of the works to be performed at the Royal Albert Hall on the following Saturday, Thea Musgrave’s Rainbow and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No2, featuring pianist Stephen Hough. 

 

BBC Proms – The Royal Albert Hall, London, Saturday 6 September 2008, 7.30pm

The Orchestra returns to the Royal Albert Hall in London to appear at the BBC Proms in September.  Prom 69 sees the RSNO and Music Director Stéphane Denève opening the concert with Albert Roussel’s Suite No2 from his ballet Bacchus et Ariane, the recording of which was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in 2007.  They will be joined on stage by British pianist Stephen Hough, who will perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No2.  The French theme returns with Debussy’s impressionistic three-movement sea symphony, La mer. Scottish composer Thea Musgrave’s Rainbow, which was premièred by the RSNO in1990 to commemorate the opening of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, completes the programme.

 

Tickets for all Scottish dates, including the Kelvingrove concerts, can be obtained by contacting the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Box Office in person or by telephone - 0141 353 8000.  For more information about the Edinburgh International Festival log onto www.eif.co.uk and to find out more about this year’s BBC Proms go to www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008.


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