Garry Walker: conductor; Leigh Melrose: bass baritone: SCO Chorus

The SCO believes passionately in performing work by composers based in Scotland, and the Orchestra’s concerts of contemporary music are consistently among its most rewarding. In the Year of Homecoming, the Orchestra celebrates some significant Scottish anniversaries. The 50th birthday of James MacMillan, whose early career saw a string of SCO commissions, is marked with his tour de force Tryst, and tribute is paid to the music of Kenneth Leighton, in the 80th anniversary year of his birth, with his 1961 concerto. Edward Harper’s Third Symphony was originally on the programme for this concert, but was unfinished when he passed away in April this year. Instead, the Orchestra will perform his Second Symphony, which draws on text from poetry by Scots author Ron Butlin and text from the Bible.

6.30pm Pre-concert talk (free to ticket holders): Composer Lyell Cresswell pays tribute to the music of Edward Harper and Kenneth Leighton.

www.sco.org.uk

© Photo: Andy Buchanan