Edinburgh International Festival

[mopsus]

To be honest, I’ve been rather underwhelmed by this year’s offerings.

I've been disappointed in the past by the broadcast of the opening concert. A few years ago I was at the 3 Choirs Festival and any of the evening concerts could have been broadcast, but none of them were. Then a few weeks later I heard the Edinburgh Festival Chorus who were nowhere near as good as their 3 Choirs Festival equivalent. I suppose the broadcasting vans always go to Edinburgh so they are there anyway.

[pastoralguy]

Why does the Usher Hall have so many seats with a 'restricted view'? Had a look at the seating plan and couldn't quite believe it.

Most of the restricted view seats are in the upper circle where one can only see two thirds of the stage if one sits at the sides. It’s usually acceptable although it can be frustrating if one can hear the brass honking away fit to bust but you can’t actually see them.

[smittims]

The Free Trade Hall in Manchester was like this too, and City Hall in Sheffield, so I'm told, had two large lions on stage, around which orchestras and choirs had to arrange themselves. All features of 19th-century architecture, which went for looks rather than acoustics (e.g. the Albert Hall pre-saucers)

[bluestateprommer]

Been very belatedly binge-catching up to the shortened, delayed relays from this year's EIF R3 offerings:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p7vq

From the first 4 Lunchtime Concert selections, the quality of music-making remains high, no surprise there. However, in past years, discussion at least here of the R3 EIF concerts has been pretty minimal, which may reflect the degree of larger audience interest, or the lack thereof. Perhaps then, no surprise that full length concerts from this year's EIF got trimmed to selections to fit one hour, in the wake of presumed budget cuts, although the Novus String Quartet full concert got spread out over two afternoons of concerts. (Now, if the selections not on Lunchtime Concert got moved to Afternoon on 3, that would be fine by me.)

[smittims]

I must say I haven't heard anything to match Elisabeth Leonskaja's Queen's Hall Schubert series about fifteen (probably more!) years ago. And I was disappointed to find the official EIF website rather unhelpful and difficult to navigate, when all I wanted was a simple list of all the Usher Hall concerts. As far as the internet goes, the 'Fringe' now seems to be the real 'festival'. Even the BBC seems to pay it more attention.

[HighlandDougie]

And I was disappointed to find the official EIF website rather unhelpful and difficult to navigate, when all I wanted was a simple list of all the Usher Hall concerts.

- enough to drive one to drink. I kept wondering who on earth they had paid to design a website where a simple search for a chronological list of concerts at the Queen's Hall or the Usher Hall led one down several rabbit holes with a frustrating lack of results

[Beresford]

I thought the concert of new orchestral music broadcast last night on R3 was pretty good, and adventurous for Edinburgh. Helen Grime was interesting, the Abrahamsen songs with orchestra was very well sung by Jennifer France. The Turnage forced me back into the kitchen (so bombastic, but I am in a minority not liking that). And Tom Service tried too hard to explain everything. I hope that the live audience appreciated it all.

[Pulcinella]

I thought the concert of new orchestral music broadcast last night on R3 was pretty good, and adventurous for Edinburgh. Helen Grime was interesting, the Abrahamsen songs with orchestra was very well sung by Jennifer France. The Turnage forced me back into the kitchen (so bombastic, but I am in a minority not liking that). And Tom Service tried too hard to explain everything. I hope that the live audience appreciated it all.

Were they all 'outstanding' works, though, as TS would have us believe?

[edashtav]

Were they all 'outstanding' works, though, as TS would have us believe?

We're they 'new': the Turnage dates from the 1980s and is a third of a century old. It has been so extensively programmed that it could be fairly termed as hackneyed. Only the fine song cycle was new.

[Beresford]

I should not have used the word "new". But what is the adjective which best describes music written in the last 100years or so that is not tuneful or tonal (again not sure of the words)? Hardly Modern, cannot be Experimental, Challenging - only to some people, "Rarely heard on Classic FM" ?

[Joseph K]

I should not have used the word "new". But what is the adjective which best describes music written in the last 100years or so that is not tuneful or tonal (again not sure of the words)? Hardly Modern, cannot be Experimental, Challenging - only to some people, "Rarely heard on Classic FM" ?

Modernist?

[mopsus]

I must say I haven't heard anything to match Elisabeth Leonskaja's Queen's Hall Schubert series about fifteen (probably more!) years ago.

I wonder whether that was also around the time she performed Schubert's last two sonatas in Bath Assembly Rooms, broadcast on Radio 3. Almost all the tickets were given away to members of local choirs and orchestras - because Bath has no regular recital series of established performers, only festivals, very few tickets sold through the city's box office!