Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Usher Hall
Ysaye Quartet
Queen’s Hall
The Two Widows
Edinburgh Festival Theatre
The Edinburgh International Festival got off to a soggy start this year. The Usher Hall, where as always the opening concert took place, is heavily shrouded, while Stage Two of a renovation process which will make it even more of a ‘centre of Creativity and Inspiration’ (isn’t it time those two had a rest?) is completed, but once you find the temporary entrance the interior is reassuringly familiar, and we began with a large-scale piece for big forces, Brecht–Weill’s most ambitious collaboration, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. H.K. Gruber was the galvanising conductor, and he persuaded the brass of the fine Royal Scottish National Orchestra to surpass themselves in virtuosity and volume, with the enthusiastic support of the Festival Chorus.
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