Edinburgh International Festival 2023 ends in style

The closing concert, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, ended Edinburgh Festival 2023, playing the remarkably beautiful Prelude and Liebestod by Wagner, then the soaring Poem of Ecstasy from Alexander Scriabin, and finally Rachmaninoff’s The Bells.

The Bells is awe-inspiring music, written by Rachmaninoff after reading the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same name. Afterwards he wrote a choral symphony of the four parts ‘The Silver Sleigh Bells,’ ‘The Mellow Wedding Bells,’ ‘The Loud Alarum Bells,’ ‘The Mournful Iron Bells,’ representing the journey through the stages of life from birth to death. This performance of it was at once sweet, melancholy, thunderous and chilling.

Bell ringing has a long tradition in Russia, until the revolution when it was banned because of its associations with the church. Rachmaninoff’s The Bells was first performed in St Petersburg in 1913.

Another pick from Edinburgh Festival 2023 is the funny, punky and sparkling Threepenny Opera from The Berliner Ensemble and Barrie Kosky. A glittering show with a tremendous stage presence by designer Rebecca Ringst. The show takes place against a backdrop of cubes and boxes with ladders and stairs, which moves deeply into the stage or sits at the front with characters inhabiting different parts of it at different times, like a building full of windows. The play, by Brecht, centres on Mack the knife – a criminal character effortlessly seducing women in jazzy pre-war Berlin.

The Lyceum hosted a short double bill from Greek mythology Phaedra/The Minotaur. Mezzo soprano Christine Rice threw her all into Phaedra, crazed with amorous love for her stepson. It was simply staged with Richard Hetherington playing piano alongside the performers. The Minotaur in the second half and was entirely danced with hypnotic elegance.

A final highlight in the extensive programme this year was Mozart’s The Magic Flute played with wit and personality by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.