EIF Bernstein & Stravinsky Usher Hall Edinburgh 21st August 2025 Review
Bernstein & Stravinsky at the Usher Hall tonight, part of the Edinburgh International Festival programme of events, was a concert that for me held more than a few surprises as I was not familiar with some of this music, and exploring new music is always an interesting adventure.
Performing the music of two composers, who in very different musical approaches made huge contributions to modernist music in the 20th century, was the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Adding her own unique perspective to tonight’s music was conductor Karina Canellakis. Also performing this evening was the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. That combination of a full orchestra and a large chorus was taking up every bit of space available on this large Usher Hall stage tonight.
The concert opened with a 13 minute symphonic work from Olivier Messiaen who was just 22 years of age when he wrote “Les Offrandes Oubliées” in 1930. Messiaen was a devout Catholic and that belief was transformed into music. This three part meditative contemplation of love, sin and redemption both on a human and divine level provided stark contrast in the scenes that Messiaen was painting with his music. The darkness and chaos of the second movement, Le Péché (sin) is in sharp contrast to the meditative third movement L’Eucharistie. Perhaps Messiaen in his devoutness never understood that, sometimes, some sin can be bright and fun.
Taking up the rest of the first half of this concert, and half of the programme title, was music by Leonard Bernstein and his “Chichester Psalms”. This work was commissioned by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1965 who, unusually for such a work, asked Bernstein if the new work could have “something of the West Side Story” about it. That request was more than fulfilled here as this is in parts a very jazz influenced work, and perhaps if West Side Story (first performed in 1957) had kept to its original concept of focusing on the New York Jewish community with the title of East Side Story, this might have been how elements of it would have sounded.
For this work, Bernstein arranged the text from the “Book of Psalms” to be performed in the original Hebrew. This performance was in Hebrew with English translations in surtitles. This is the first time that I have heard anything but a short song sung in Hebrew and it was an interesting experience in many ways.
One highlight of this work for me, and many others in the audience judging by the applause given, was the performance of Hugh Cutting (countertenor) on Psalm 23 (The Lords Prayer). This wonderful arrangement by Bernstein gave Hugh Cutting the opportunity to give a sublime vocal performance. For some reason, there was also, for me, little moments here where the music and Hugh’s vocals reminded me of one of my favourite songs of all time, “Unchained Melody”.
The final work this evening, which took up the whole of the second half, was Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version). Originally written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company, this work has been substantially changed by the composer to make it more of a concert work than a ballet score. Still though, that love of folk music and dance as a source material is evident throughout much of this work. Tonight, surtitles were for me a great aid into making sure that I was at the right scene musically in this work.
In good musical programming there are often threads linking the works together. Here, the first and second works are connected by their religious aspects and Leonard Bernstein openly credited the music of Igor Stravinsky in his own musical development.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Performing the music of two composers, who in very different musical approaches made huge contributions to modernist music in the 20th century, was the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Adding her own unique perspective to tonight’s music was conductor Karina Canellakis. Also performing this evening was the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. That combination of a full orchestra and a large chorus was taking up every bit of space available on this large Usher Hall stage tonight.
The concert opened with a 13 minute symphonic work from Olivier Messiaen who was just 22 years of age when he wrote “Les Offrandes Oubliées” in 1930. Messiaen was a devout Catholic and that belief was transformed into music. This three part meditative contemplation of love, sin and redemption both on a human and divine level provided stark contrast in the scenes that Messiaen was painting with his music. The darkness and chaos of the second movement, Le Péché (sin) is in sharp contrast to the meditative third movement L’Eucharistie. Perhaps Messiaen in his devoutness never understood that, sometimes, some sin can be bright and fun.
Taking up the rest of the first half of this concert, and half of the programme title, was music by Leonard Bernstein and his “Chichester Psalms”. This work was commissioned by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1965 who, unusually for such a work, asked Bernstein if the new work could have “something of the West Side Story” about it. That request was more than fulfilled here as this is in parts a very jazz influenced work, and perhaps if West Side Story (first performed in 1957) had kept to its original concept of focusing on the New York Jewish community with the title of East Side Story, this might have been how elements of it would have sounded.
For this work, Bernstein arranged the text from the “Book of Psalms” to be performed in the original Hebrew. This performance was in Hebrew with English translations in surtitles. This is the first time that I have heard anything but a short song sung in Hebrew and it was an interesting experience in many ways.
One highlight of this work for me, and many others in the audience judging by the applause given, was the performance of Hugh Cutting (countertenor) on Psalm 23 (The Lords Prayer). This wonderful arrangement by Bernstein gave Hugh Cutting the opportunity to give a sublime vocal performance. For some reason, there was also, for me, little moments here where the music and Hugh’s vocals reminded me of one of my favourite songs of all time, “Unchained Melody”.
The final work this evening, which took up the whole of the second half, was Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version). Originally written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company, this work has been substantially changed by the composer to make it more of a concert work than a ballet score. Still though, that love of folk music and dance as a source material is evident throughout much of this work. Tonight, surtitles were for me a great aid into making sure that I was at the right scene musically in this work.
In good musical programming there are often threads linking the works together. Here, the first and second works are connected by their religious aspects and Leonard Bernstein openly credited the music of Igor Stravinsky in his own musical development.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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