Edinburgh International Festival opening concert to last eight hours

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Requiring 250 singers and a full orchestra, the work is certainly a massive undertaking for anyone wishing to perform it. Not for nothing will this be only its second UK outing since its 2003 world premiere at the atmospheric Temple Church in London, built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century as their base in England. The only other complete performance was a decade ago, at Trondheim's 12th century Nidaros Cathedral as part of the Norwegian city's high summer St Olav's Festival.
Acclaimed director and musician Thomas Guthrie sang in the 2003 performance, directed the Norwegian one and will repeat that feat in Edinburgh. Is he daunted by the prospect? Not at all. 'It's a wonderful experience,' he tells me. 'I believe in the piece and it will be interesting to climb that mountain again and do the challenge.'
Director Thomas Guthrie (Image: Teresa Powell)
But with the Usher Hall performance taking place during the day rather than overnight and the venue being very different from the two previous ones – a 1914 concert hall built in a Beaux-Arts style – what changes has he made and how will the experience be altered?
'I think it is going to be different,' he admits. 'I'm sure most people have had the experience when for one reason or other they've had to stay up all night and see the dawn come in, whether by choice or not. It's an extraordinary thing. You can hallucinate. It's a really revealing experience. The piece was written to be done like that and we're not doing it, so how does that affect things? Well, we'll find out. But there are versions of this which have been done that are two hours long and have still had a real punch and a real value.'
So as well as aiming to deliver 'magic and beauty', Guthrie is promising a spectacle with 'a sense of surprise.'
Monteverdi Choir with Jonathan Sells (conductor ) James Johnstone (organ) (Image: Paul Marc Mitchell)
'One concrete thing I can say is how we're going to end it. It's written for the performers to lead the audience out into the daylight and it's very interesting because it used to end as a bit of a damp squib in a way. But in this version we're going to end it with a bang, and a real celebration, and a sense of communion with the audience and joy among the performers.'
The work itself takes the form of eight cycles, the shortest lasting around 20 minutes, the longest 90 minutes. Folded through it and sustaining it are meditations, prayers and chants inspired by the traditions of the Latin Church and its Eastern counterparts. But there's more than just those twin traditions at play. The work opens with a love song drawing on the traditions of Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism, and also incorporates elements from the Upanishads, a series of ancient Sanskrit texts which pre-date Christianity by many centuries. The work is sung mostly in English, but if your Aramaic, Slavonic, Greek or Sanskrit is a little rusty, there are English surtitles available for those passages.
'From my point of view, I think what's great about it is the simplicity, almost the childishness that Sir John allowed himself to bring to it. So sometimes the musical material is very, very beautiful, and sometimes it's almost childlike in its simplicity.'
Previous iterations have used incense and candles, but in Edinburgh these will mostly be dispensed with. A single candle will be used on a dais which can be raised and lowered. The point it not to impose a kind of false spirituality. 'It's very much an internal journey [for the audience] that doesn't try to make too many associations with High Church. What's important to me is that we feel we're in that space together.'
Coming together in Edinburgh for the EIF performance are the celebrated Edinburgh Festival Chorus, and the equally impressive National Youth Choir of Scotland's Chamber Choir, directed by James Grossmith and Christopher Bell respectively. They will be joined by the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by Jonathan Sells, and by Grammy-nominated Puerto Rican soprano Sophia Burgos. Performing the music are the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Swedish conductor and mezzo-soprano Sofi Jeannin.
Monteverdi Choir (Image: Paul Marc Mitchell)
'I really believe in the music, because I know it well from inside,' says Guthrie finally. 'I don't doubt that it will be a really powerful, experience to have sat through and to come out even that same night. Audiences will have had an experience unlike anything they've maybe had before.'
Opening Concert: The Veil Of The Temple is at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on Saturday August 2 (2.30pm). The Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists also perform at the Usher Hall on Monday August 4 (7.30pm), and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform Mendelssohn's Elijah in the Closing Concert at the Usher Hall on Sunday August 24 (7.30pm). All concerts are part of the Edinburgh International Festival