Orchestral Series Highlights 2021 (Edinburgh International Festival)

Dalia Stasevska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra launched the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival’s orchestral series with a performance of PIVOT, a brand new work specially commissioned by the International Festival from London-born, New York-based Anna Clyne, one of today’s most immediate and emotionally involving composers.

Fiery Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan has made a big impact since becoming the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor with her electric direction. She conducts the orchestra in the last movement of Beethoven’s pioneering First Symphony.

Since its founding in 2015, Chineke! has become one of the UK’s most exciting musical ensembles. Here, the full forces of the Chineke! Orchestra assemble under inspirational US conductor William Eddins for the groundbreaking work Blush by English composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson.

A regular and much-admired International Festival visitor, Marin Alsop has recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra A Spell of Green Corn by Peter Maxwell Davies. The work celebrates the islands’ ancient tradition of a fiddler blessing the furrow with a tune before crops are planted.

Mendelssohn’s magical A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the last recorded work of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival’s orchestral highlights. Together with the RSNO and members of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Thomas Søndergård performs the last part of the incidental music, starting with the famous Wedding March.