Bernstein & Stravinsky

Conductor Karina Canellakis returns to the Festival and leads the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (SSO) through a monumental programme featuring Messiaen, Stravinsky and Bernstein.

The in-demand Karina Canellakis returns after making her International Festival debut in the 2023 Closing Concert. She leads this monumental programme with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the BBC SSO, characterised by thrilling sounds and ideas of love, divine or human.

The moving symphonic work Les Offrandes Oubliées made Olivier Messiaen's name aged just 22, his devout Catholicism driving this three-part meditation on eternal mysteries and human sin.

When the Dean of Chichester Cathedral commissioned Leonard Bernstein to write the Chichester Psalms in 1965, he hinted they'd be delighted if it had ‘something of the West Side Story’ about it. Bernstein came through. Its jazzy inflections promise a thrilling workout for the Festival Chorus and emotive countertenor Hugh Cutting.

For the finale, Igor Stravinsky's dazzling 1911 ballet Petrushka is brilliantly reorchestrated by the composer in 1947 for the concert platform.

Rising Stars of Voice programme joins this performance. Rising Stars gives the world’s most promising young musicians a chance to shine on an international stage.

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She retained fine sculptural control over her fully amassed forces
NY Times

Supported by Pirie Rankin Endowed Fund

Programme

A keepsake freesheet is available at the venue for this performance.

Full programme

Sung in Hebrew with English surtitles

Performers

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Karina Canellakis
Conductor
Edinburgh Festival Chorus
James Grossmith
Chorus Director
Rising Stars of Voice
Hugh Cutting
Countertenor

Edinburgh Festival ChorusCloseOpen

Chorus Director
James Grossmith
Soprano 1
Carol-Anne Burnett
Louise Cameron
Simona Cenci
Annette Chapman
Katherine Craig
Lisa Dawson
Maggie Gilchrist
Clare Hewitt
Lorna Holl
Talitha Kearey
Andrea Kocsis
Natsuko Mortimer
Louise McGregor
Morag Michael
Kat Preston-Hynd
Ros Sutherland
Jennifer Swan
Lesley Walker
Soprano 2
Julie Aaquist
Emma Aitken
Anne Backhouse
Rhona Brown
Susan Bowden
Deborah Buckingham
Rachael Cartwright
Kathryn Coad
Margaret Cumming
Rosamund Davidson
Dorothy Fairweather
Jane Gilhooly
Carol Haley
Leila Inglis
Lesley Johnston
Maggie Kinnes
Janet McKenzie
Emily McLeish
Kathy Miller
Katharine Oyler
Karen Traill
Alto 1
Moira Allingham
Ruth Bowen
Barbara Brodie
Susan Crosby
Catherine Dunlop
Caroline Dunmur
Kirstie Fairnie
Rona Gray
Anne Grindley
Fiona Milligan
Jane MacLeod
Tatiana Malikova
Stephanie Omari
Nicola Stock
Mary Taylor
Kirsty Weaver
Susan White
Alto 2
Jeanette Bell
Anna Borbely
Dinah Bourne
Sally Cameron
Wendy Colquhoun
Helen Coskeran
Ann Firth
Tori Graham
Linda Hunter
Caroline Low
Carol Madden
Frances McDevitt
Catriona McDonald
Lucy O'Leary
Judith Robertson
Penny Stone
Morag Watson
Tenor 1
Joanna Bleau
Brendan Glen
David Leaver
David Lee
Gio MacDonald
Martin McKean
Matt Norriss
Ian Phillips
Alex Rankine
Mike Towers
Tenor 2
Malcolm Bennett
Andrew Binnian
John Burnside
Graham Drew
Richard Hellewell
Michael Jamieson
Stuart Mitchell
James White
Bass 1
Derek Calder
Peter Cannell
Malcolm Crosby
Martin Gray
John Halliday
Nick Harding
David Hewitson
Andrew Hyder
Ivor Klayman
David Mack-Smith
Tom Marshall
Andrew Moore
Graham Naysmith
Roger Robertson
Graham Scott
Andrew Williams
Bass 2
Mark Adams
Ken Allen
Felix Boecking
Philip Coad
Peter Hillier
Stephen Lipton
Sandy Matheson
John McLeod
Neil Ryrie
Martin Scott
David Traill

Dive Deeper

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One thing which inspired me about all the great conductors... was the idea that a human being can internalise a piece of music to such a degree that it seems as if the sound of the orchestra is actually flowing right out of that person’s body.... All the studying I did was, and still is, just an attempt to understand this mysterious art form
Karina Canellakis