The best EIF classical concerts - Scotsman critic David Kettle previews the 2025 programme
Scotsman critic David Kettle picks his classical music highlights from this year’s EIF programme
The Veil of the Temple It takes a festival with the ambition – and the means – of the Edinburgh International Festival to launch its classical programme with an eight-hour, stage-filling mystical choral meditation from one of the UK’s most idiosyncratic composers. John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple straddles world religions in search of a universal truth, taking its listeners on a spiritual journey to a hair-raising, conscience-altering state of enlightenment. It’s sure to be an unforgettable experience, with the combined might of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Monteverdi Choir (below) and National Youth Choir of Scotland plus the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and numerous international soloists – and it’s surely the most profound contemplation of the EIF’s theme, “the truth we seek”. Usher Hall, 2 August
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy Spiritual contemplations continue in a stage-shuddering two-piano recital from keyboard and life partners Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy in a rare live performance of Messiaen’s mighty Visions de l’Amen. The beautiful austerity of Bach and the volatile playfulness of Kurtág join forces in a typically unconventional first half. Queen’s Hall, 5 August
Hanni Liang: Dreams The Rite of Spring famously came to Stravinsky in a dream, as did Yesterday to Paul McCartney. The recital by German-born pianist Hanni Liang (pictured above) might give you the chance to delve into your own night-time visions and hear them realised at the keyboard. Debussy’s tender Rêverie provides a starting point, but after that it’s down to you, Liang and your subconscious… The Hub, 7 August
Aurora Orchestra: Shostakovich Inside Out Was Shostakovich an obedient line-toer or a snarling subversive in Soviet Russia? The Aurora Orchestra and founding conductor Nicholas Collon surely won’t attempt a simple answer in their conversational dissection of the composer’s Fifth Symphony (after all, there isn’t one), but they’ll set out to examine the music amid the terror and turmoil of its times. The full piece will be played uninterrupted in the evening concert along with a piece by Abel Selaocoe. Usher Hall, 18 August
Dunedin Consort & John Butt It’s not all spiritual enlightenment or political intrigue among the International Festival’s classical concerts. For some comic relief – of an early 18th-century kind, admittedly – head for Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno at the Queen’s Hall, in which saucy shepherdess Clori entertains the advances of not one but two suitors, ending up winning neither of them. It’s officially a cantata, but unofficially a mini-opera, and John Butt and the crack Dunedin Ensemble – helped by a trio of fine soloists – are sure to bring all its drama and emotion alive with plenty of knowing wit. Queen’s Hall, 21 August
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