The programme for last night's Usher Hall concert by Collegium Vocale Gent and conductor Philippe Herreweghe afforded an interesting opportunity to consider the matching of music with buildings. The second half consisted of the Mass in E Minor by the devout Bruckner, commissioned in 1862 for a building that was not actually completed until 1924 (and hence first performed outdoors on the building site, which accounts for its unusual scoring).
Some might say that Bishop Rudiger of Linz might have been better waiting. A couple of years after the cathedral was completed, Igor Stravinsky re-joined the Catholic church and his Mass, which featured in the first part of the concert, is the more compelling piece, even if he couldn't match Bruckner in the faith stakes.
Perhaps some of this was in Herreweghe's mind when he took time to tell the Edinburgh audience: "We have performed all over the world, and this is one of the most beautiful acoustics in the world." Keith Bruce
PIANIST Ivan Moravec, scheduled to give the Queen’s Hall recital on Thursday morning, has had to withdraw. And here’s the good news: at the 11th hour Scottish pianist Steven Osborne has agreed to step into the breech and fill the slot on Thursday. The even better news is that Osborne will feature in his programme a performance of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata, which he’s been playing since his teens, and of which he is now just about an unrivalled master. He makes it sing. And the very good news gets better yet with the announcement that in the second half of his recital, Osborne, now regarded as one of the great Messiaen pianists of the day, whose recordings are unparalleled, will give over the second half to five extracts from Messiaen’s epic cycle, Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jesus. What was always going to be an interesting concert is now unmissable. Thursday, 11am, Queen’s Hall. Be there. Michael Tumelty
A crying shame
Crying in public isn't always advisable (or excusable..), but I managed it twice this weekend.
Once was during the incredible, visionary 'forest' scene in the new National Theatre of Scotland play, 365.
The forest scene has already become something of a hit in itself, which may say something for the play, and its unusual structure and sense of fragmentary drama. I loved the show, and especially Vicky Featherstone's direction, but not everyone I spoke to afterwards did.
Anyway, when the forest is revealed, and Paul Buchanan's heart-wrenching song (which he wrote specifically for the piece) plays, and the children dance a dance of pain and shattered imagination - well, briefly, some of the stage smoke got in my eyes, I must admit.
Luckily the auditorium was quite dark and no one noticed.
But the teariness was not as heavy as when, this Sunday, I saw (on replay, I'd missed it in the first place) the baby-faced German weightlifter Matthias Steiner improbably win his first gold medal at the Olympics only months after burying his young wife, who died in a car crash last summer. He held her picture as he was awarded his medal.
Away from the festival, it was the greatest piece of purely human drama (at least on a sporting level) I have seen this year.
His story - which has electrified Germany and its media - will surely become a movie, or at least a TV drama.
And, indeed, probably at the Fringe, in some form, next year.
A small gloss on last Saturday's Bank of Scotland Herald Angels presentations at the Festival Theatre. The event was graced by the presence of this newspaper's esteemed editor Charles McGhee, probably for the last time in that capacity.
He was subtly honoured in the entertainment provided by Angel-winning band Special Ed and the Shortbus. They performed a composition of their own, Paperchase, which talks about how money has a way of slipping through the fingers. One of its killer lines, pointedly delivered on the day, refers to the dangers of "creditors, editors, and other predators." Keith Bruce
Good news for Harrower
It is apt that in the same week that his new play for the National Theatre of Scotland debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival, Scotland's David Harrower has received more good news.
It has been announced that his Olivier Award winning play, Blackbird, is to be made into a film.
Harrower, whose 365 is to open at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Friday night, will also write the screen play to the movie version of his play.
Blackbird premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005, which was followed by a run at the Albery Theatre in London’s West End. Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill starred in its critically acclaimed US production, directed by Joe Montello, which ran at the Manhattan Theater Club in 2007.
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett chose to direct Blackbird for the Sydney Theatre Company in 2007, as well.
Today the producer of the movie version, Jeam Doumanian, said: “When I saw Blackbird on stage, I was really struck by the raw, emotional intensity of David Harrower’s characters and their gripping story. David has one of the most unique voices in the theatre today and the fact that he is now translating that voice to the screen with us is very exciting."
Dancing on the Edge
The Edge Festival, Edinburgh's successor to T on the Fringe, last night threw up the best example of audience participation to be seen on the Fringe this year, an arena that usually creates more than a few of those.
Santogold's gig at The Liquid Room was a triumph from the start but it got even better when one of Santi White's excellent flanking dancers, whose choreography most know from the popular video for L.E.S Artistes, left the stage.
This was an excuse for Santi to look to the audience for substitutes. First up were a couple of likely lasses called, apparently genuinely, Ali and Cat. They were then joined by a guy who was far from content to go down the freeform route and instead precisely replicated the moves of the real dancer on the other side of the stage. He was not just good at doing this, he was mesmerising, and we can only assume he has his own show somewhere else on the Fringe.
The crowd loved it, Ali and Cat loved it - and quickly followed suit as best they could - and Santi herself seemed gleeful, showering Edinburgh and its citizenry with effusive praise.
International Festival
