EIF: The Opening Concert

Usher Hall - 06/08/22

To quote the divine Kate Bush – ‘WOW!’ I have been attending the Edinburgh International Festival since the late 1960s, but this was one of the best concerts of the lot! 

First of all, it was perfectly programmed with two pieces – an orchestral work designed to thrill and a choral masterpiece of immense bravura – which brought out the best in the orchestra and its former Musical Director. Ottorino Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’ and Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ are two of the 20th century’s best loved pieces, eminently approachable and proven audience favourites, but requiring forces that only an international festival can provide. 

A packed Usher Hall, buzzing with anticipation after the Covid nightmare, was the perfect setting for the opening concert of the 75th Edinburgh Festival, an occasion reminiscent of the glory days of Peter Diamand and John Drummond. The BBCSSO is now a very fine orchestra, and it was great to have back in our midst Scotland’s finest modern conductor, Sir Donald Runnicles, currently Music Director of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and my former classmate at George Watson’s College. 

Respighi’s ‘I Pini di Roma’ is a tone poem in four parts, written in 1924, in which the composer imagines the history of Rome as seen through the never-changing eyes of its traditional pine trees, and depicting the city at all times of day and night, reaching a tremendous climax as a great Roman army ascends the Capitoline Hill. Using a huge orchestra, with extra brass and percussion, a piano, an organ and a recording of an actual nightingale, the work progresses through darkness to the blazing light of a Roman sunrise, with a grand finale which needs a live performance to achieve its effect, and which Runnicles and the BBCSSO played to the hilt.  

After the interval, we were treated to a definitive performance of Carl Orff’s 1937 masterwork, ‘Carmina Burana’ (Songs of Beuern, a small town in Bavaria, where a wealth of satirical manuscripts from the 11th  12th and 13th centuries were found in the early 19th century). When first heard in Frankfurt in 1937, it made a huge impression on audiences, and has continued to do so ever since. 

It was fantastic to have the translated words clearly depicted above the performers, and this helped enormously in our understanding of the texts, which range from deep philosophical Angst through naive school-yard fantasies to biting satire on the state of the mediaeval church.  

The performance could hardly be bettered. The wonderfully drilled Edinburgh Festival Chorus (chorus director Aidan Oliver) and the NYCOS National Girls’ Choir (director Christopher Bell) were models of clarity and rhythmic excellence, as well as raw power. 

The three soloists were marvellous. The agony of the roasting swan was portrayed superbly by the South African tenor, Sunnyboy Dladla, displaying a high tenor with just the right tightness of utterance. The Puerto Rican soprano, Meechot Marrero, was a model of virginal sweetness transformed into voluptuous womanhood before our very eyes, and she sang like a goddess. Her interactions with the American baritone, Thomas Lehman, were hysterical. Mr Lehman, in perhaps the most difficult baritone solo part in all oratorios, was fantastic, covering the range from sweet lover, through lecherous drunken abbot, to persuasive wooer, with aplomb. He possesses just the right voice for this role, which moves from tender lover to full-blooded dramatic baritone. 

Donald Runnicles controlled the whole piece with steely precision, maintaining a brisk pace throughout but allowing the music to breath. Orff’s genius lay in making extremely difficult music seem simple, and Donald was able to convey all the emotions splendidly. He has become a great showman at the podium, and I mean that as a huge compliment. There is not the slightest doubt about his control over the vast forces in front of him, but he is able to convey all the nuances of the score as well as the bravura elements, and the climactic finale was greeted with resounding bravos from the audience, well deserved! 

The Festival is off to a great start.  

Cover photo: Ryan Buchanan