Thanks for the memory as sponsorship goes out with a bang

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 00:19

BANK OF SCOTLAND FIREWORKS CONCERT **** Scottish Chamber Orchestra Princes Street Gardens

HAS any bank invested money in such a pleasurable way as the Bank of Scotland in the finale fireworks concert of the Edinburgh International Festival? The bank can be assured that while it may be its last year as sponsor, its generous profile will remain etched in the memory.

While the reputation of most banks has plummeted, the Bank of Scotland's has soared - at least last night - as high as fireworks can travel in 45 minutes.

The music kicks off at 9pm sharp but the whole event begins much earlier as groups of friends gather in the queue, in our case in King's Stables Road. As gannets return annually to the same bit of the Bass Rock, so we gravitate to the same spot on the grass. Just as we have all got older in the 28 years since the fireworks began, so the trees have grown to partially screen the view.

The 2010 music programme focused on works by pioneering Hollywood film composers of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, three of whom fled to the US from Nazi Europe, poetically completing the migration strand of the International Festival's Journey of Discovery theme. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra in fine fettle played a sequence of pieces that captured mood rather than dynamic drama, with extracts from soundtracks by Erich Wolfgang Korngold for Kings Row, Leonard Bernstein for On the Waterfront and Bernard Hermann for Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie.

These were unusually romantic, tinged with disconcerting, sinister often mysterious moments. With the castle playing its usual role as key protagonist, Keith Webb of Pyrovision, working closely with conductor Clark Rundell, ensured that the musical narrative provided by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra was visually expressed to stunning effect.

The piece de resistance complete with the long awaited shimmering silver waterfall came with Franz Waxman's work for Taras Bulba, a grand adventure yarn that culminates in an army of 16th century Cossacks on horseback brilliantly depicted in exploding stars of all colours with rockets inside them releasing multiplying shimmering cascades. Lying on the grass with all that happening overhead as if the universe was being reborn is mind-blowing. Thank you Bank of Scotland.