EACH year the verdict of the many thousands who gather for the Festival Fireworks Concert seems to be that it's the best year yet, and this year was no exception. For a start there was Romanian conductor Nicolae Moldoveanu, who, being Transylvanian,
knows the sources of Brahms's Hungarian Dances and Dvorák's Slavonic Dances first-hand. Under his spirited direction the Scottish Chamber Orchestra brought dancing lyricism to the unforgettable melodies and tantalising rhythms that are the essence of this vital music.
There can be no more magnificent backdrop in the world than Edinburgh Castle for an exuberant synthesis of music and fireworks such as this. The four tonnes of explosives and 100,000 fireworks which the Pyrovision team take six days to lay out take only 45 minutes to go up in smoke, but it always seems much longer. This year, the pyrotechnicians used red and green coloured smoke from which fountains of molten gold released cascades of red firecrackers, as well as golden fireflies, Catherine wheels and a series of mini-waterfalls, as well as the great silver waterfall that is a perennial highlight.
Moldoveanu's choice of pieces offered a heady mix of the serenades and high-spirited folk dances of village fiestas that evoke a gypsy spirit in their fluent mood switches from melancholy to wild passion. And while they are based on old Bohemian couple and round dances with unfamiliar names – such as czardas, furiant, skocná dumka, starodávn and kolo – it was clear the actual pieces are alive in people's musical unconscious even if they were only aware of this when they actually heard them.
This is the only classical concert I know of where everyone hums along when they're not crying "wow" and "ooh" or just laughing out loud at the crazy beauty of it all.
The full article contains 313 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
