Music Director Thierry Fischer leads the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Edinburgh.
In the August 21 Edinburgh Music Review, Donal Hurley writes, “The night of 19th August brought the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra’s European Tour to the Usher Hall, under the baton of their Swiss music director Thierry Fischer … The (theoretically) all-Latin first half opened with M. Camargo Guarnieri’s… ‘Suite Vila Rica’, followed by two equally colorful works for solo violin and orchestra, Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s Violin Concerto and German/American film composer Franz Waxman’s ‘Carmen Fantasie’ (and not that by Spaniard Pablo de Sarasate, as had been advertised). The soloist was … the fabulous Roman Simovic, leader of the LSO …. In the Guarnieri suite … the playing was stylish, idiomatic and engaging. The orchestra played its heart out … Ginastera’s 1963 Violin Concerto is a far cry from his earlier style. There is no sign of Argentinian folk melodies. It is uncompromisingly atonal in what he called his ‘neo-expressionist’ style…. Waxman’s … virtuoso reworking of many of the best tunes from Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ is a delight from start to finish…. Roman Simovic [played] in a gleeful partnership with conductor and orchestra…. The performance of Strauss’ ‘Eine Alpensinfonie’ … was splendid.”
