WAS last year's initial Festival music programme by Jonathan Mills little more than a preparatory tease? Low on opera and a sustained orchestral programme, the question then was whether its tentative innovations, such as the heavy early music content and early evening Greyfriars Kirk series, would mature into something more brazen and bold for his second Festival.
The answer is a blistering yes. The sheer variety and vitality of the 2008 package is breathtaking. There are no dark nights at the Usher Hall as there were last year; opera is mouth-wateringly adventurous, even if fully-staged performances are again
limited to only two; and on top of the perennial daily diet of morning Queen's Hall recitals, mini-series in Greyfriars and St Giles' Cathedral broaden the scope of the Festival's smaller-scale performances.
Overall, the scheduling looks more shapely and sustained than before without being too radical. But the quality of programming is daring and inspired. Its overriding theme – "Artists without Borders" – is a masterstroke, neither limiting nor constraining the musical possibilities. Linkages to it range from the obvious and literal to the psychological and tenuous, from political allegories to displaced composers. Prepare to be thrilled and refreshed.
Mills has lined up exactly what a festival of Edinburgh's stature ought to: many works that would rarely see the light of day in the normal course of events. When, if ever, was Szymanowski's psychologically turbulent King Roger last performed in Scotland? A fully staged production by the Mariinsky Opera Company under Valery Gergiev is just one of three appearances by the famous Russian company.
The famous St Petersburg outfit completes its operatic residency with concert versions of The Enchanted Wanderer by Rodion Shchedrin, a contemporary Russian whose music is tinged with potent allusions to his native folk tradition, and a double bill that couples Rachmaninov's single-act student opera Aleko with Act 3 of Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko.
Perhaps the most important thing for us here in Scotland, though, is to see Scottish Opera back big time at the festival in a specially commissioned production of Smetana's The Two Widows, conducted by Francesco Corti, who makes his first appearance with the company since being appointed as its new musical director. Scottish Opera badly needs an international platform like this, and a chance to prove it has far greater worth than recently poor main productions would suggest.
Many felt that Mills made an artistic miscalculation by opening last year's Festival with Bernstein's lightweight Candide. But he has gone for the jugular this time with Kurt Weill's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, a piece unheard in Scotland since David Alden's 1986 production for Scottish Opera presented Brecht's tale of greed and decadence with the memorable help of a Maggie Thatcher look-alike. With the irascible HK Gruber directing the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and a cast that includes the indomitable Willard White, this opener has all the potential to light an explosive fuse.
And when did the Usher Hall programme last promise such a rich cocktail of styles and personalities? Sure, Brian McMaster's programmes were never short on symphonic or operatic blockbusters, and there are trusty old names on Mills' 2008 roll call – Alfred Brendel and Sir Charles Mackerras are always a welcome pairing, as are Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra. But a long-overdue Festival debut by Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, who perform Schutz and Brahms with Gardiner's slick Monteverdi Choir, is just one of many fresh touches.
And then there is the mesmerising prospect of all of Prokofiev's symphonies, performed over three nights by the London Symphony Orchestra under the caressing fingers of Valery Gergiev. Let's just hope that the Usher Hall, currently closed for renovation, is fit enough to house such an opulent musical feast.
Jonathan Mills should be feeling quietly satisfied with a line-up that is a remarkable balancing act between quality and adventure. He seems prepared to take risks, but in a calculated and well-argued format. If it all turns out to be as spectacular in reality as it appears on paper, then this is a feast of music that simply shouldn't be missed.
THREE TO SEEKING ROGERSUNG in the original Polish, this fully-staged production of Szymanowski's psychologically turbulent King Roger by St Petersburg's famous Mariinsky Opera Company, under its long-standing musical director Valery Gergiev, marks a milestone for Szymanowski's opera in the UK. The music is luminous and exotic, and the potential for heated drama enormous.
• Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 25-27 August
THE PROKOFIEV SYMPHONIESGERGIEV again, but this time with the London Symphony Orchestra in a three-night sweep through Prokofiev's seven symphonies. Gergiev's idiosyncratic conducting style draws an intensity that is jaw-dropping.
• Usher Hall, 15-17 August
ORCHESTRE RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE ET ROMANTIQUESIR John Eliot Gardiner's Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is a truly unique band, and makes its long-overdue Festival debut this year, taking the concept of period instrument performance right up to the 19th century
• Usher Hall, 19 August
The full article contains 855 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
