En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Jonathan Morton

What is it about Arvo Pärt’s ‘Angel Music’ that appeals to the dying? Vanishing Point’s theatre and Scottish Ensemble’s playing combine to produce a thoughtful and poignant performance.  

Music from Vaughan Williams is contrasted with two pieces from Dobrinka Tabakova  in The Scottish Ensemble’s candlelit concert, Ascent. Senior NYOS strings swell the ranks to produce a reflective evening of richness and warmth.

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is used a reference in Anna Meredith’s Anno, an immersive performance by the Scottish Ensemble with surround visuals by illustrator Eleanor Meredith.

Debussy, Ravel and Fauré: turn of the century Paris. We might think of hazy perfumed music, but the richness of the Scottish Ensemble brought out a bold, vibrant and dynamic side to the French dreams.

In a big challenge, the Scottish Ensemble players were included in the choreography in a cross-arts collaboration with Andersson Dance from Sweden in an innovative performance of the Goldberg Variations.

As the December nights darken and the winter's first snowflakes fall from the sky, the Scottish Ensemble's candlelight concerts provice a welcome space for reflection at this busy time of year.

A very striking wild-eyed hirsute man has been staring out at us across Scotland on posters for this concert tour, showing that the Scottish Ensemble has adapted well to the modern world of promotion, using titles, straplines and imagination. On the face of things, the choice of eight seemingly very disconnected pieces in the programme, from 1700 to the present day, was disconcerting.

The Scottish Ensemble has been resident in Dundee for four days, really getting under the skin of the city. Amongst a whole raft of activities, including pop-up concerts, performing a film score live at a screening at Dundee Contemporary Arts, the Ensemble has been working with string players from Dundee Schools Orchestra and Dundee Symphony Orchestra.

When Stravinsky brought his radical ballet Petrushka to Vienna in 1912, the composer recounts in his autobiography, the orchestra was full of complaints about the demands of the score. Disillusioned by this, Stravinsky found comfort from the unlikely figure of the man who raised and lowered the stage curtains. “Don’t let’s be downhearted”, he said, “I’ve been here for 55 years...

There is something delightfully non-prescriptive about the word “ensemble”, admitting of many combinations of performers and types of music. It was this notion of flexibility that came to the fore in Friday night’s concert in the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.

Violist Lawrence Power, appropriately enough, produces a powerful, beautiful sound. Many public speakers would envy his musical charisma; when he begins a phrase you simply have to hear how it ends. His appearance as guest of the Scottish Ensemble saw him as joint soloist in two works and soloist proper in another.

Built on the site of a Franciscan friary which was dissolved in 1559, Greyfriars Kirk is one of the treasures of Edinburgh's 'Old Town'. A rich tradition of music-making has grown there, due to its striking interior and fantastic acoustic.

In the week when the world of Physics was turned upside-down by neutrinos being found to travel faster than the speed of light, my physics world encountered another first – a carpeted church with a fantastic acoustic! St Michael’s Kirk, Inveresk – situated at the highest point of Musselburgh, East Lothian - played host to a sold-out concert featuring The Scottish Ensemble and their special guest,