Edinburgh Festival 2011

[Flosshilde]

The programme for the Edinburgh International Festival 2011 has been launched - www.eif.co.uk

Booking for Friends opened yesterday; public bookink opens on Saturday the 2nd April.

Runnicles conducting the BBCSSO in Mahler 2 is bound to be a hot ticket after last year's 8th.

[Flosshilde]

Heavens, isn't anyone interested in the Edinburgh Festival? What a lot of Anglo-centrics you are!

[french frank]

I expect everyone dashed to see what was on when Curalach posted that the EIF programme had been announced yesterday . Perhaps ...

[makropulos]

The programme for the Edinburgh International Festival 2011 has been launched - www.eif.co.uk

Booking for Friends opened yesterday; public bookink opens on Saturday the 2nd April.

Runnicles conducting the BBCSSO in Mahler 2 is bound to be a hot ticket after last year's 8th.

Sorry - speaking for myself, the lack of reaction has nothing whatsoever to do with being anglocentric - but on paper, with two exceptions, this has to set record-breaking levels of dullness for EIF concerts. Perhaps if I could get excited by anything Runnicles does, then the Mahler 2 might appeal, but the concert that really strikes me as worthwhile is Jurowski doing the Faust Symphony with the OAE. Sadly, that's about it. Visiting foreign orchestras are always fun, but Dutoit is so complacent these days that the Philadelphia concerts - potentially wonderful - are likely to be a snooze. And so it goes on - very underwhelming. When I think what the EIF was like for orchestral concerts 5, 10, 20 years ago - it was always worth saving up for and making the trip. I have to wonder how seriously the current director of the festival takes concerts...this year's look pretty mediocre.

[Flosshilde]

I expect everyone dashed to see what was on when Curalach posted that the EIF programme had been announced yesterday . Perhaps ...

Oh, you mean his post that I managed to find under the Proms thread (obvious place to look, really ) listing a few of the orchestras, with no link to the EIF website? Very helpful. (Curalach - I'm sure that you didn't intend your post to be a 'heads-up' for the EIF launch ).

[BBMmk2]

Hmmm, I didnt think much of Runnicle's Mahler 8th!!

[Curalach]

Curalach - I'm sure that you didn't intend your post to be a 'heads-up' for the EIF launch

Indeed not. I'm afraid I agree entirely with makropulos.

For me, Jonathan Mills is the worst ever director of the EIF.
I will book for the Philadelphia, but I think Dutoit is well past his "sell by" and the programmes are hardly Festival material.
I will not bother with the Seoul Philharmonic or the Montreal Orchestra.
The Tonhalle was poor the last time I heard them and I was unimpressed previously with Jonathan Nott and the Bambergers.
That doesn't leave much in the orchestral field.
The Philharmonia with Salonen should be worth hearing and I will do the M2 Runnicles because I know him, but I think it is beyond absurd that the RSNO is playing for a French Opera, Thais, and being conducted by Andrew Davis instead of their highly talented French Music Director, Stephane Deneve.
I truly despair of the EIF. The last Director I had any respect for was John Drummond.

My wife and I spent a very short time this evening deciding what we would book for. It is the shortest list yet.

[french frank]

Here's a report on the rationale behind the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-fife-12831366

[aeolium]

The last Director I had any respect for was John Drummond.

What about Brian McMaster, Curalach? I thought he came up with some good programmes, for instance the series of Mozart piano concertos with Christian Zacharias and the SCO in 2000.

[Curalach]

What about Brian McMaster, Curalach? I thought he came up with some good programmes, for instance the series of Mozart piano concertos with Christian Zacharias and the SCO in 2000.

Good in parts! I did think that his Bruckner and Beethoven Symphony series was an imaginative development in the way that it was done.

I am aware that times have changed and that the standard of domestic orchestral provision is light years ahead of where it used to be.
Major visiting orchestras were a delight as they revealed what could be achieved compared to the local orchestras.
Nowadays, the standards of the RSNO, BBCSSO and SCO are as good as most but having some visiting band hacking out a routine programme is not the stuff of an International Festival.

[Petrushka]

Here's a report on the rationale behind the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-fife-12831366

My heart sinks when I read this sort of guff about imposing some 'theme', any 'theme', on a festival like Edinburgh or the Proms. Why is a theme thought necessary to sell the festival? The Seoul Philharmonic may, for all I know, be a very good orchestra but I beg leave to doubt that they are worthy of a slot in the EIF. The Bambergers and Zurichers may have more claims but they are hardly in the front rank. By contrast, the Philadelphians are in the front rank but bring with them two of the safest bits of programming imaginable.

For some years I've been debating whether to skip the Proms for one year and go to Edinburgh. I will not be doing so in 2011.