The programme for the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival has been announced, featuring many Askonas Holt artists and touring partners.

This year marks the festival’s 70th anniversary, and the classical programme launches with the same work that opened the 1947 festival – Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. The opening concert is completed by Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 with soprano Dorothea Röschmann. 

Other highlights include: a concert performances of Die Walküre with Matthew Rose and Simon O’Neill; Iestyn Davies’ two performances with the Academy of Ancient Music; Nicola Benedetti performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Budapest Festival Orchestra; a piano trio recital from Kristian Bezuidenhout, Jonathan Cohen and Shunske Sato; and Bach, Haydn and Schubert with the Chiaroscuro Quartet. 

Our Tours & Projects department return to the festival again this year, bringing both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Music Director Louis Langrée – who are also on tour in Asia this month – and the Bergen Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Edward Gardner to the festival. Edward and the Bergen Philharmonic will give two performances: Wagner, Grieg and Elgar on 12 August, and a concert performance of Peter Grimes on 13 August, with Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Robert Murray and Brindley Sherratt. 

Selected performances will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. 

#EdintFest | 4-28 August 2017 | https://www.eif.co.uk/ 

Full details below:

Usher Hall

5 August, 8.00pm - Dorothea Röschmann, Emma Bell, Werner Güra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Palo Heras-Casado

Haydn Symphony No. 94 ‘Surprise’, Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2 ‘Lobgesang’

6 August, 5.00pm - Matthew Rose, Simon O'Neill, Jennifer Johnston, Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis, Christine Goerke, Amber Wagner, Karen Cargill, Bryn Terfel

Wagner, Die Walküre

9 August, 8.00pm - Malcolm Martineau, Bryn Terfel

Songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Meirion Williams 

10 August, 7.30pm - Nicola Benedetti, Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fischer

Schubert Overture to Die Zauberharfe, Brahms Violin Concerto, Dvořák Symphony No. 8  

11 August, 8.00pm - Matthew Rose, Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis, Erin Wall, Robert Dean Smith

Elgar's Viking cantata scenes from The Saga of King Olaf

12 August, 7.45pm – Edward Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Paul Lewis

Wagner Overture to Rienzi, Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Elgar Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major

13 August, 6.00pm - Edward Gardner, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Brindley Sherratt, Robert Murray, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, Edvard Grieg, Stuart Skelton, Erin Wall, Christopher Purves, Susan Bickley, Hanna Husáhr, Vibeke Kristensen, Marcus Farnsworth, James Gilchrist, Barnaby Rea 

Britten, Peter Grimes 

20 August, 7.00pm – David Soar, Hallé, Sir Mark Elder, Christopher Bell, Michèle Losier, Michael Spyres, Laurent Naouri

Berlioz, La damnation de Faust

25 August, 7.30pm - Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Louis Langrée

Bernstein Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront, Copland Lincoln Portrait, Brahms Symphony No 1 in C minor

Queen’s Hall

18 August, 11.00am - Chiaroscuro Quartet

Bach Art of Fugue (excerpts), Haydn String Quartet in E-flat major Op. 76 No. 6, Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' 

22 August, 11.00am - Iestyn Davies, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr

Telemann Ouverture in D TWV 55 D15, Bach Wiederstehe doch der Sünde BWV 54, Telemann Trio in E flat TWV42 Es1, Bach Gott soll allein mein Herze haben BWV 169 

24 August, 11.00am - Iestyn Davies, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr

Telemann Ouverture TWV 55 B5 'Les Nations', Bach Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust BWV 170, Bach Geist und Seele wird verwirret BWV 35 

St Cecilia’s Hall

22 August, 5.45pm - Kristian Bezuidenhout, Jonathan Cohen, Shunske Sato

Mozart Piano Trio in E K542, Haydn Keyboard Sonata in G minor Hob XVI:44, Beethoven Piano Trio in C minor Op. 1 No. 3 

Festival Theatre

9, 11, 12 August - Christopher Maltman, Lucy Crowe, Sylvia Schwartz, Jose Fardilha, Laura Aikin, Jeremy Ovenden, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Matteo Peirone, Iván Fischer: conductor/production director 

Mozart, Don Giovanni