Edinburgh International Festival 8th-31st August 2008

‘HK Gruber is second to none in this music, playing up to its amalgamation of jazz and neo-classicism for all it is worth.'

- The Guardian

'A most memorable evening'

EIF Critic, Bridget Stevens on the Opening Concert for Festival 08 

Much is expected of EIF Opening Concerts, and this one did not disappoint. The alienation effect integral to Brecht's dramatic writing was created here not by words projected on to a backdrop but by printed programme notes and by the concert performance format itself. Despite the expressive singing of the soloists, the limited amount of acting they were able to do in their fixed line-up and the small number of small props they had at their disposal rendered it all a bit static and unreal. Anthony Dean Griffey as Jim Mahoney was outstanding, but the narrator Hannah Gordon seemed dwarfed both visually and vocally. Kurt Weill's scores often involve non-classical instruments and last night's audience clearly loved the zither in particular. A reduced, all-male Festival Chorus and seventeen female singing students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama provided solid support.  The richest moments came during some glorious ensemble singing and playing. The hurricane song succeeded well in setting the mood of panic and foreboding, while the familiar Alabama song was exquisitely haunting and elegiac. The didactic message, another characteristic of Brecht-Weill collaborations, was delivered subtly yet clearly and never got in the way of the magnificent operatic elements of the work. A most memorable evening.

- EIF Critic, Bridget Stevens

THIS CONCERT WAS RECORDED BY BBC RADIO 3

- This concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 20 September at 6.30pm and will also be available to Listen Again at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3