ArtmagLive
Live art, theatre, drama, dance and music from around Scotland
Robert Black | City Halls, Recital Room | Op.17a for Solo Bass
As part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts adventurous double bass player Robert Black valiantly tackles this textured and intense score by the visual artist and composer Hanne Darboven. The artist is known for exploring the nature of time by building multi-layered photos, videos and diagrams which revel in codes and systems. She also delights into the underlying ciphers of musical notation creating slabs of dense compositions that form a challenging and fierce experience for any musician. Luckily Black has the appetite and chops for tricky works and his Op.17a for solo bass should prove enchanting and mesmeric. Thu 3 May, 7pm | Tickets £6 | www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
RSNO 11:12 Season | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium | Rite of Spring
Stéphane Denève delivers Stravinsky’s extravagant and dissonant eruption of pagan frenzy where gambolling woodwind flits amid driving erratic rhythms and stabbing strings, forever lurching toward the hormonal rush of those sumptuous brassy climaxes. Although the work is almost a hundred years old it still sits confidently in the contemporary era feeling more playful and richly textured to a modern audience weaned on the serrated drama of minimalism and movie scores. The concert opens with Samuel Barber’s enthralling Violin Concerto creating some soothing calm before the storm, and few play this piece quite as beautifully as James Ehnes.
Pre-concert talk 6.45pm: John Poulter (RSNO Associate Principal Percussion)Sat 5 May, 7:30pm | Tickets £34, £25, £18.50, £14, £11 |www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
Imaginate Festival | Traverse Theatre Edinburgh | Titus
The Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival is always a surprise and delight, bringing performers from around the world and showcasing the finest theatre for children and young people. This year’s line up is represents some of Europe’s premium talent. The Festival encompasses almost 100 performances from 14 different companies and plays in a variety of venues such as the Traverse, Brunton theatre, North Edinburgh Arts Centre and Church Hill Theatre. Get a copy of the programme here: www.imaginate.org.uk.
Titus is one of Europe's most successful plays for young people. It was written by Belgian writer Jan Sobrie, and awarded the Dutch-German Author Prize in 2007. It’s the story of a 10 year-old boy on the edge, quite literally. He’s standing on the roof of his school in the throes of a situation that seems hopeless. Will he give up the ghost or man- up and fight? A drama about telling big lies and small truths - about pigs that fall in love and crows that talk and about running away in order to find yourself. Age: 11+ years
8/9 May | Tickets £10 | Box Office 0131 228 1404 | www.Traverse.co.uk
Phillip Glass | Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium, Glasgow | Minimal: Glass at 75
Well done Svend Brown for introducing a major Minimalism strand to Glasgow Music’s programming, and for persuading none other than founding father Phillip Glass to drop by for his 75th birthday. Glass is of course a towering figure in modern music, his much copied style - weaving colourful melodies around repetitive structures – can be heard everywhere from car adverts to soapy dramas, almost becoming a mainstream contemporary sound. A far cry from his early pioneering struggles in the 60’s. Glasgow Music devote their second mini-festival to his work – MINIMAL: Glass At 75 (Part II) featuring two performances by the hugely influential composer and musician including a recital of old and new works.
The sprightly artist still looks a fit and healthy 75 and shows no sign of slowing down with his latest tour taking him all over Europe. There’s been nothing “minimalist” about his output either. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than twenty operas; eight symphonies; two piano concertos and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra; soundtracks to films; string quartets; a growing body of work for solo piano and organ. He has collaborated with Paul Simon, David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble. This is a unique opportunity to catch one of the planets outstanding composers. Not to be missed.
Symphony No.6
To kick off the 75th birthday celebrations the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra gives the UK Premiere of the composer’s Sixth Symphony, an impassioned setting for Allen Ginsberg’s protest poem, Plutonian Ode, which rails against nuclear contamination and pollution. The symphony moves from fury and denunciation to eventual spiritual and personal transformation. Conducted by Nicholas Collon, Principal Conductor of the Aurora Orchestra, it is preceded by Richard Strauss’s epic tone-poem of decay and rebirth, Death and Transfiguration Thu 24 May, 7:30pm | Tickets £12 City Halls Grand Hall |www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
Dracula
Glass, himself takes on the keyboard duties along with the Kronos Quartet for a performance of his own score for Dracula, the classic Universal Pictures 1931 horror film starring Béla Lugosi. Glass’s score is the first ever written for the film, of which the composer himself is a big fan.Fri 25 May, 7:30pm | Tickets £25, £20 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium | www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
Philip Glass in Recital
The composer will be at the piano for a duo concert with violinist Tim Fain for an evening of music that explores some of the earlier work and presents some brand new compositions alongside it.Sat 26 May, 7:30pm | Tickets £25, £20 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Main Auditorium | www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
Malcolm McGonigle, Performing Arts Editor
malcmcgonigle@tiscali.co.uk
