Bruckner's time
Bruckner time. Time for a rave....if I haven't used up my ration of superlatives writing about his ninth. His eighth. His best - some say. His biggest - certainly. And that's the trouble: Along with...
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Reviews for Brewer and Runnicles
Donald Runnicles returned to Scotland last week to lead some fantastic concerts in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh accompanied by the amazing Christine Brewer. As Donald was in town there was quite a...
View ArticleChristine Brewer and Donald Runnicles - Post-Concert Coda footage
Last Thursday at City Halls the orchestra performed an outstanding concert with Soprano Christine Brewer and Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles on the top of their game. There was a special treat in...
View ArticleSlippery fingering
Gasps of delight. That's what we got when Robert Levin played Beethoven's second piano concerto with us a couple of years ago, with Nicholas McGuigan conducting. Chatting to Andrew Manze for the...
View ArticleHow long is a point in time?
Obvious: the same length as a piece of string. Maybe you were at one of our three concerts with Christine Brewer. Or you heard Edinburgh's relay, or heard her and Donald's In Tune performance, or saw...
View ArticleSpace rubble
I've been wondering: Deep down, what do I want to say - apart from jumping up and down on the touch line shouting for the music team? Well, I've had some holiday - time to reflect a little - time to...
View ArticleDiscovering Music - Mozart Linz Symphony, "Disco Linz"
Want to learn about Mozart? Well... we did... and we did just that by creating a whole new piece... In March this year the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performed and recorded Mozart's wonderful...
View ArticleNot getting any younger
The Simon Bolivar band has outgrown its moniker, 'youth'. There's rumours about cutting apron strings and setting out as a regular orchestra. Well, true or not, this throws up some interesting...
View ArticleAfter the honeymoon......
Less than a year into his tenure with the LA Phil, Dudamel has been touring major USA cities - so I followed the reviews - easily done with the web. Tours forge relationships between players and...
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Orkney Stage One
Well, the first stage of my adventure with the BBC SSO to Orkney and the St Magnus Festival passed off in a surprisingly trouble free and rather pleasant way. In a day when travelling as a musician is...
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"There's no such thing as bad weather in Scotland, only inappropriate...
The wind blows on Orkney. I had forgotten just how much the elements influence life up here. Walking the sheltered streets all built to protect you from the prevailing winds gives you a kind of false...
View ArticleRelaxing in Orkney
"....must be nice for you to relax now that your main season has finished!" Don't believe it. 'Listen Here', our open weekend of four concerts, launched our 75th birthday season. Straight on to five...
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The Musical Isle
This island is jumping with music, and not just the music that's taking place in the festival. I mean the music that takes place here all the time. Today I gave some master-classes at the Orkney...
View ArticleDOING IT YOUR WAY
"Tell your own story". That's what Donald said. Saying something like that to 107 players, while each is struggling to get the notes right, in the right order and at the same time, might seem a tad...
View ArticleWe've moved to the Scotland's Music blog
We're no longer posting to this blog but you can find BBC SSO related posts and content on the Scotland's Music blog which covers classical, folk, jazz, rock, pop, and electronic music.
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