Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time transfixes Edinburgh International Festival audience

By Alan Coady, 12 August 2014

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Reviewed at Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh on 11 August 2014

Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)

Jörg Widmann, Clarinet

Antje Weithaas, Violin

Alban Gerhardt, Cello

Steven Osborne, Piano

Turangalîla underwhelms at the Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Roy Westbrook, 23rd April

Serious music ill-matched by filmic limitations as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Messiaen’s epic “symphony” as part of the Southbank’s cross-genre festival.

**111

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO stir up swelling seas with Scheherazade

Robert Gainer, 4th March

In the CBSO Benevolent Fund concert, the orchestra tells the timeless story, set in Persia, of Scheherazade who, through her storytelling, brings about peace.

****1

Heft and delicacy: Philharmonia makes Lammermuir Festival debut

Simon Thompson, 10th September

Bringing the Philharmonia is the most ambitious thing the Lammermuir Festival has ever done, yet it felt like a natural next step for a festival that's growing in stature.

****1

Gardner and the LPO scale Alpine heights with majestic ease

Nick Boston, 21st February

Majestic Strauss and effortless Grieg from Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

****1

Exquisite Mozart from Steven Osborne with the Ulster Orchestra

Leighton Jones, 14th February

Championing British musicm the Ulster Orchestra also performs a seldom heard work by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

***11

The stars shine brightly: Morlot conducts Messiaen in Manchester

Leighton Jones, 12th December

In a rare performance of Des Canyons aux étoiles, Ludovic Morlot and Steven Osborne plunge the depths of Utah’s canyons and ascend to celestial plains.

*****

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Alan Coady

Alan has taught classical guitar in East Lothian schools since 1982. A graduate in Music of the then Huddersfield Polytechnic, he has a soft spot for the contemporary. He also writes a Musical Blog, where the special interest is the intersection of music/language/science.