Erwartung 1988Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Read more about the opera Erwartung
The Finnish composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has spent a large part of his career as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Swedish Radio orchestra is an excellent band which he brought to the Edinburgh Festival, where they made a fine impression. This was the American soprano Karan Armstrong's only appearance in Scotland. She spent most of her career in Germany, married to the director Götz Friedrich, and her repertoire ranged from Elsa in Lohengrin, which she sang at Bayreuth, to the title role in the three-act version of Lulu, which she performed at Covent Garden.
This concert was a well-planned evening, beginning with Erwartung. It was completed by an equally fine performance of a rather more popular work of the period, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
