| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 15-Nov-2012 The Jam House | Hebrides Ensemble: Eight Songs for a Mad King |
 The Jam House is a jazz and blues club occupying the BBC’s former Queen Street Studios in Edinburgh. Now owned by Jools Holland and designer Neil Tabbitt, its spacious Georgian interior is occasionally given over to theatrical and musical events. Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) qualifies as both music and theatre, and this production, which was directed by Ben Twist, designed by Fiona Watt and lit by Martin Palmer, was certainly theatrical.
Read full review... | |
| 29-Sep-2012 Kings Place: Hall One | London première of James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... |
 The Kings Place programme booklet for Since it was the Day of Preparation… folds like a thin papery triptych. Yet, the composer’s photograph does not occupy the central panel. Indeed, gushing verbal bombast, a feature all too common in performances of new music, was pleasantly absent. James MacMillan’s programme notes were a minimal paragraph outlining the tripartite structure of his chamber work, which follows the narrative of Christ’s resurrection.Read full review... | |
| 22-Aug-2012 Greyfriars Kirk | World première of James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... |
 At one extreme of musical preparation, early music specialists rely on research to ensure authentic performance of music by composers long dead. At the other, composers writing today might well be acquainted with the performers and consult them on the technical possibility of some passages and attend rehearsals. This is likely to have been the case for James MacMillan's Since it was the Day of Preparation... whose world première took place in Edinburgh's historic Greyfriars Kirk.
Read full review... | |
| 8-Nov-2011 Queen's Hall, Edinburgh | Hebrides Ensemble: American Pioneers - Queen's Hall Edinburgh |
| American Pioneers, the latest Hebrides Ensemble programme, featured five U.S. composers in what musical director, William Conway described as "a slice" of contemporary music from that vast country. Minimalism, as one might expect, featured. Jennifer Higdon's Smash (2005) opened with what felt like a celebration of our obsession with speed. Scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, the piece - if not a textbook example of minimalism - was certainly economic and tightly argued. Read full review... | |
