Scottish Ensemble makes the old sound new

26 April 2023Posted inCulture, Music
Scottish Ensemble makes the old sound new
📸 Hugh Carswell

Scottish Ensemble’s rejuvenated production of Bach’s Goldberg Variations: ternary patterns for insomnia.

Scottish Ensemble curtain call

I very much enjoyed attending Scottish Ensemble’s joint production with the Stockholm based Andersson Dance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations: ternary patterns for insomnia in Arnhem last month. It’s amazing to think that this was their 50th performance of the work, having performed it all over the Europe and the world, from the Shanghai Concert Hall to the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, and it still seemed so fresh. A synthesis of dance and music where absolutely everything was on stage at times, even the ‘kitchen sink’! Wonderful playing from all.

Jo
Lovely to catch up with friend, violinist and Aussie Brit, Joanne Green
Dance

Watch the trailer:

Trailer for Scottish Ensemble & Andersson Dance’s production of the Goldberg Variations (2023)

Watch snippets from a performance in the The Kennedy Centre, Washington DC

‘Art forms merge and surge with sublime synergy as Stockholm-based Andersson Dance and Glasgow-based Scottish Ensemble become true partners, interacting in this Kennedy Center Digital Stage Original with a seamless display of talent. Johann Sebastian Bach’s sparkling masterpiece comes to stunning life through a whirlwind of movement and sound in this entrancing collaboration.’ The Kennedy Centre video (2018)

Learn more about the production process:

The production process started in 2015. A video sharing the mechanics of putting together such an amazing and original work of theatre
programme

Reviewed at Musis & Stadstheater, Arnhem, 22nd March 2023

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Further Reading:

Read about a performance and listen to some of the music from a Nederlandse Reisopera production based on Gluck’s opera, Orfeo and Eurydice, incorporating AI and virtual headsets, set in a redundant and cold airport hangar: Orpheé | L’Amour | Eurydice: Opera, But Not As We Know It

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Last updated on 26 April 2023