Going out with a bang

Published on Friday 29 August 2008 09:17

DANCING in a cloudless void, perfectly attuned to the score soaring from the Ross Bandstand below, a thousand glittering explosions are set to once again light the night sky over the Capital on Sunday, when the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival reaches its spectacular climax.

Last year, more than 250,000 people watched the annual Bank of Scotland fireworks concert, the biggest annual event of its kind in Europe, and listened as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) played the live soundtrack of the spectacular finale.

They will do so again this year, with acclaimed Romanian conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu on the podium. And again, as a programme consisting of excerpts from Brahms' Hungarian Dances and Dvorak's Slavonic Dances unfolds, international fireworks artists Wilf Scott and Keith Webb of Pyrovision will be hard at work on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle synchronising the display with the music.

Formed in 1974 with a commitment to serve the Scottish community, the SCO is now internationally recognised as one of the world's foremost chamber orchestras.

Their managing director Roy McEwan says, "This year's finale promises to be as breathtaking as ever with the orchestra performing an exuberant programme of central European folk dance music, to provide a suitably climatic end to the festivals season."

The programme opens with excerpts from Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances, a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on traditional folk themes – only three of them (11, 14 and 16) are original compositions.

Each lasts between one and four minutes in length and are among Brahms' most popular works, the most famous being No 5 in G minor which opens Sunday's concert and was used in the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator.

Composed by Antonn Dvork in 1878 and 1886, the Slavonic Dances are a series of 16 orchestral pieces. Originally written for piano they were inspired by Brahms Hungarian Dances.

Lively and overtly nationalistic, they were well received at the time and today are among the composer's most memorable works – Slavonic Dance No 8, Op 46 even featured in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode entitled A Fistful of Datas, when a computer malfunction causes the piece to be played instead of a requested Mozart trio.

More than 100,000 fireworks, four tonnes of explosives, and hundreds of firing sequences – including the famous waterfall cascading from Edinburgh Castle – will be used to accompany this year's concert in a display that Scott and Webb promise will be "an unforgettable 45 minutes".

Jonathan Mills, director of the Edinburgh International Festival says, "The Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert is a spectacular way to celebrate the end of the Festival season.

"There is a fantastic atmosphere in Princes Street Gardens and across the city, where crowds gather to watch the display"

One thing's for sure. The 2008 EIF like many before, will go out with a bang. Literally.

&#149 Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert, Princes Street Gardens, Sunday, 9pm, 25 (returns only), 0131-473 2000