Edinburgh International Festival 2019

The outstanding young performers of the National Youth Choir of Scotland are joined by Whitburn Brass Band for Sir James MacMillan’s poignant oratorio All the Hills and Vales Along, written to commemorate the fallen of the First World War. Christopher Bell conducts the Scottish premiere of The Culham Motets, MacMillan’s poignant oratorio written to commemorate the fallen of the First World War.

A timeless love story; an electrifying spectacle. New York City, 1950s. Jets versus Sharks. Two rival gangs fight for control of the Upper West Side. Against the backdrop of violence, two teenagers fall in love. Fifteen members of the National Youth Choir of Scotland take part in the cultural phenomenon with Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

A passionate outcry against man’s inhumanity to man, Britten’s War Requiem is a profoundly moving plea for peace, contrasting shattering anti-war poetry by Wilfred Owen with the timeless ritual of the Latin mass for the dead. With an international trio of soloists and the choral might of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and NYCOS National Girls Choir, Daniel Harding conducts Britten’s soul-searching pacifist masterpiece.