Read all the latest press coverage below:

SCO at the Edinburgh International Festival 2010

Robin Ticciati makes EIF debut with Rebel, Poulenc, Bizet and Volans

"Conductor Robin Ticciati and the SCO did a splendid job bringing it into gentle life. And in the context of a programme that emphasised the starkly original, with Rebel’s Les Elemens, the hormonally exuberant, in Bizet’s Symphony in C, and the quirky, in Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Volans’s symphony sat comfortably: an oasis of calm." **** The Herald Read review

"...superbly played by the orchestra..." ****The Scotsman Read review

"...Ticciati and the orchestra provided well judged and dramatic accompaniment..." Where's Runnicles? Read review

Idomeneo

"Norrington, seated throughout, gave the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus room to articulate detail, yet each scene built into a larger shape." ***** Financial Times Read review

"Finally the musicality and athletic precision of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra had an added bloom and warmth in Usher Hall, and Norrington's balances were impeccable..." The Berkshire Review for the Arts Read review

"This was an interpretation of great violence as well as great beauty, played with a combination of high drama and fastidious detail by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra." **** The Guardian Read review

"...Roger Norrington filled the breach by leading the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, fortified with period horns and trombones, in a performance dedicated to the late conductor that respected period-instrument incisiveness yet also achieved spaciousness and grandeur..." New York Times  Read review

"This glorious performance encapsulates everything that the Festival stands for, but in particular it makes the point that expensive, flamboyant productions are not always needed when the music can speak for itself in such an engaging and beguiling way." ***** The Scotsman Read review

"The SCO and its chorus were in tremendous form, super-alert...and extremely idiomatic and stylish." **** The Herald Read review

"...the orchestra were on sparkling form..." Where's Runnicles? Read review

SCO at the BBC Proms, August 2010

"The Czech composer's Wind Serenade went beautifully, with music-making of charm and crispness." **** The Guardian Read review

"They sang their hearts out in the arias of the Gran Partita, K361, tellingly defined by Boyd as an opera for wind ensemble equal to the collaborations with Da Ponte or The Magic Flute." TheArtsDesk.com Read review

Highlands Tour, July 2010

"The SCO is known for the flexibility of its playing – in this instance that meant a small-scale account of Mozart's mighty Jupiter Symphony in keeping with the intimate surroundings of Strathpeffer's Victorian spa pavilion." *** The Guardian

East Neuk Festival, July 2010

"The Scottish Chamber Orchestra responded in kind, lofting Vaughan Williams’s soaring lines into the vaults with a lovely combination of spaciousness and urgency." **** Daily Telegraph Read review

"This was really two concerts rolled into one: a programme of 20th-century string orchestra masterpieces with a concert of 16th-century English choral music in the middle." *** The Guardian Read review

SCO at Stirling Castle, June 2010

"It is a measure of the SCO's commitment to its summer touring schedule that the orchestra engages the same calibre of artist for concerts in often out-of-the-way locations as it does for its main season programmes."
**** The Guardian Read review

Pires plays Beethoven, May 2010

"...could anybody in the almost-capacity house at the City Hall on Friday night for the closing concert of the SCO’s winter season put their hand on their heart and assert that they heard anything better than this?" ***** The Herald Read review

"They say good things come in small packages. Sure enough, the diminutive figure of Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires seemed in direct contrast to the broad sweep of a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 she gave in the vastness of the Usher Hall partnered by conductor Trevor Pinnock and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra." **** The Scotsman Read review

"Completely immersed in the music, she transported the audience with her marvelous interpretion of this well-known concerto. Her rendition of the cadenza in the middle movement was superb, eliciting all the passion in the delicate passages. The finale was a tour de force." **** Edinburgh Guide

"Her performance of the Beethoven Concerto achieved a rare thing, it unveiled the work and with Pinnock’s insightful conducting and the SCO’s skilled playing this familiar concerto suddenly made sense in a completely new way." Aberdeen Press and Journal

"This was a glorious end to an excellent SCO season and I eagerly look forward to next season which begins as this one ended with Mozart – Don Giovanni under principal conductor Robin Ticciati." Confessions of a Failed Luddite Read blog review

Chamber Concert, May 2010

"Played with such attentiveness to fine detail, Schoenberg’s first sextet version of his early masterpiece seems more truthful than the lushness of his subsequent orchestral one." **** The Herald Read review

Schumann Mass, May 2010
"...Storgårds emphasised the contrasts between movements, drawing some expansive playing from the SCO". **** The Guardian Read review

"... the SCO Chorus, directed by conductor John Storgards, proved themselves to be more than up to the task, nearly lifting the roof in the dynamic Gloria and bringing the mass to an end with a suitably contemplative Agnus Dei." *** The Scotsman Read review

"I have not heard Brahms’s Second Serenade played with such finesse as was wrought from the piece by conductor John Storgards and a reduced SCO ensemble." **** The Herald Read review

"A marvellous performance." **** Edinburgh Guide Read review

Symphonies of the North, May 2010

"...Tüür drew on a colour palette as psychedelic as the Northern Lights, using a dazzling array of effects as well as an exotic line-up of percussion instruments to conjure up images of restless encounters with nature" The Scotsman Read review

Pastoral Symphony, May 2010

"This is music that makes the hair stand up, which this performance achieved with uncompromising welter." **** The Scotsman Read review

Zacharias and Schubert, April 2010

"Scotland is familiar with Christian Zacharias in the guise of both recitalist and conductor; however the opportunity to witness him in both roles within one concert is something of a novelty." **** The Herald Read review

"To say that Zacharias effectively orchestrated the work is to recognise the very personal connection that existed between his solo performance and his later conducting of the Ninth Symphony." **** The Scotsman Read review

"This was a thrilling performance from the SCO with Zacharias, the most subtle of conductors." Aberdeen Press and Journal

Spring Serenade, April 2010

"...Here was playing of great poise and intelligence with fine balance between soloist and orchestra." *** The Herald

Schumann 200 - Romantic Spring, March 2010

"...the SCO's dynamic performance of this joyous work certainly zinged with a newly minted freshness..." **** The Scotsman Read review

"Elts demonstrated unshowy authority: his idiosyncratic and sometimes nonchalant gestures translated into music-making of naturalness and imagination, and he didn't need a baton to get precision from these players." **** Daily Telegraph Read review

"There we are: the pioneer, the high priest and the poet, all together on one stage: intelligent programming; superior playing..." **** The Herald

"From the striking opening fanfare to the marvellous build up of pace and  sound in the final allegro, this was the SCO at their very best, and when they are in this sort of form, very hard to beat." Dundee Courier and Advertiser

Osborne Plays Mozart, March 2010

"...there is particular pleasure to be derived from hearing the orchestra play the classical works for which it has a particular affinity. ***** The Guardian Read review

"...Playing with fluidity and resonance... the SCO heralded a change of style in the extended orchestral introduction" **** The Scotsman Read review

"...the SCO in super-polished form..." **** The Herald

Child Prodigy, Mature Genius, March 2010

"An affable character, Egarr addresses the audience while the fortepiano was being set up for the Haydn concerto... it was very effective, and quite in keeping with Egarr’s reputation as one of our finest experts in “period” practice." Music Web International Read review

"Only a conductor and player this good, armed with an orchestra that good as his backing band, could get away with it. And they did." ***** The Herald
Read review

"...Egarr moulded a performance that captured the sheer basic bravado and structural dexterity of the work..." **** The Scotsman

"...the orchestra, completely focused on Egarr, played exceptionally well. A great concert..." **** Edinburgh Guide Read review

CL@SIX - Baroque Masters, February 2010

"After a long day at the office, the restorative and calming qualities of baroque music are hard to beat, particularly this lively selection of Handel and Bach concertos presented by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Richard Egarr from the harpsichord and chamber organ." **** The Scotsman Read review

SCO Chamber Concert, February 2010

"In the mounting intensity of Brahms’s Von ewiger liebe and the two lovely songs with viola obbligato, mezzo soprano Julia Riley rose to the occasion, delivering with fine seriousness and responding admirably to the soft-grained beauty of Jane Atkins’s viola." **** The Herald Read review

"I've said it many times before, but I think the SCO's chamber concerts are one of the jewels of their season." Where's Runnicles? Read review 

Travels in Eastern Europe, February 2010

"This is pure magic... [it was an] enthralling concert on Friday. The atmosphere generated in Ligeti’s buzzing Ramifications was electric. There may have been little conventional in it for mainstream audiences to hang on to, but Ticciati’s belief in the music gave the performance a magnetic quality." **** The Herald

"It was a joy to hear, the kind of performance to have you craning forward in your seat to catch every last detail. Behind him the SCO were in period mode, with the horns playing on natural instruments, and Ticciati providing plenty of energy and directing a taut performance." Where's Runnicles? Read review

Leschenko Plays Chopin, February 2010

"Whenever the SCO are reunited with Swensen something magical always happens, and sparks were certainly flying in their sizzling performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No 3 in A minor (Scottish)." **** The Scotsman Read review

"...the SCO was in magisterial form, with playing of such refinement, intensity and clarity in every section of the orchestra that it became one of those occasions where the music, through the power of the performance, grips you by the throat". ***** The Herald Read review

"...Polina Leschenko gave a convincing rendering of his [Chopin's] second piano concerto..." Read review 

L'Enfance du Christ, February 2010

"...this performance by the SCO and Chorus singled it out as eternally fresh. There was hardly a moment where the sheer transparency of the music, its crystalline intimacy, failed to draw us in. Simply superb. Robin Ticciati, played to the SCO’s strengths, serving up Berlioz’s delicious imagery with a level of precision that was staggeringly beautiful."
***** The Scotsman

"It is a study in miniature, the ­overwhelming mood one of tranquillity."
**** The Guardian Read review

"...the orchestra responded with spirit, while the SCO Chorus sang with renewed vigour - as much a tribute to new chorus master Gregory Batsleer as to Ticciati". Financial Times Read review

"Making his third appearance with the orchestra since he officially picked up the baton in December, he assembled an excellent team of soloists for an interpretation that lingered on the details while keeping a gossamer thread running through the whole." **** The Times Read review

"...in one of the most enthralling and, indeed, spellbinding SCO performances I have witnessed in a long time, Ticciati demonstrated in Berlioz’s l’Enfance du Christ his immaculate command of the long line in music, and his acute   sensitivity, faithfully reflected in superlative SCO playing, to colour, mood and atmosphere...Everything was layered gently into it: the tender portraiture of Karen Cargill’s Mary and Ronan Collett’s Joseph; the aching uncertainty andworld-weary qualities of Matthew Rose’s supreme Herod, the light, fluid character of Yann Beuron’s narrator, and the luminous singing of the SCO Chorus. Everything blended into an extraordinarily unified presentation.
***** The Herald

"The musicians of the SCO give a predictably fine performance and the SCO choir sounded magnificent in places, particularly in the extraordinary ending of the piece which concludes with an exquisite unaccompanied pianissimo "Amen". **** Edinburgh Guide Read review

"Saturday evening’s performance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at  Aberdeen’s Music Hall passed like a magical dream, 100 minutes seemingly condensed into a single thought...Rapt by the work’s spell, I don’t think anyone wanted to let it go. Aberdeen Press and Journal

"...this was something altogether special. The work emerged as though freshly minted, natural and direct in utterance, with finely graded dynamics and beautiful tone, and not the slightest hint of prettiness or sentimentality... the whole was more than the sum of its parts." Hector Berlioz website
Read review

"It was a magical hour and a half" Read review from Where's Runnicles?

We laughed about it - the logic was to cast me as SCO featured artist - Ken Walton's interview with Karen Cargill Read the full Scotsman article

Mackerras, Mozart and Strauss, January 2010

What was immediately evident in last night's performance was the warmth of affection between Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Their many years of working together produce an atmosphere of being so entirely comfortable with one another that the listener feels that they could achieve almost anything." MusicWeb International  Read review

 "...what poured out from the SCO all evening was some of the most utterly exhilarating orchestral playing you will hear anywhere, from anyone". **** The Herald Read review

"...conductor Sir Charles MacKerras knew exactly how to handle Mozart's work, playing to the complexities and emphasising the contrasts to craft a quirky but curiously intense rendition". **** The Scotsman Read review

Cargill Sings Berlioz, December 2009

"...everything he touched turned to pure gold..." ***** The Herald
Read review

"...to speak only of his youthful energy would be to overlook the depth of interpretation and complexity of character that this conductor brings to the music..." ***** The Scotsman Read review

Ticciati and Kozena, December 2009

"Behind the aura of Kozena's captivating performance – who was visually stunning, too, in a glamorous golden ensemble – Ticciati elicited finely-etched support from his new orchestra." **** The Scotsman Read review

"Ticciati’s understated but detailed interpretation captured this well. And the SCO’s principals seized their solo opportunities — particularly Jane Atkins (viola) with a stunning lament in the haunting Nocturne" *** The Times
Read review 

"It reminded the listener just how finely integrated the SCO is...and highlighted the players' commitment to the music and their sparky new conductor." **** The Independent Read review

Young faces on the podium are adding verve to Britain's orchestras
"Robin Ticciati has taken up his baton with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and joined a wave of new conductors galvanising the world of classical music."
Read full article here

Robin Ticciati: lightning conductor
Still only 26 years old, the British star is taking the world of classical music by storm. Read the full article from the Times here

On an Overgrown Path, December 2009

"...different ideas all beautifully integrated in this fabulous up-beat performance..." **** The Scotsman Read review

"The orchestra are fully in sympathy with all of Matthews' choices and they played beautifully, with too many excellent solo contributions to mention here. " Music-Web International Read review  

Homecoming, November 2009

"this performance from the SCO and chorus and young baritone Alexander Robin Baker, conducted by Garry Walker, made a fitting tribute". **** The Guardian Read review

"Conductor Garry Walker shed new light on James MacMillan's Tryst, in this striking interpretation of a work that is more global meltdown than lover's tryst." *** The Scotsman Read review

" the SCO contributed a characteristically committed and taut performance under Garry Walker's baton." **** Musicalcriticism.com Read review

CL@SIX: Wind Serenade, November 2009

"...the ensemble had fun playing the delightfully dizzy central section of the minuet and the more serene nocturne, with the clarinet and oboe melodies floating over a gently rocking cello line." *** The Scotsman Read review

Beethoven and Brahms, November 2009

"The opening bars of Beethoven's Fidelio overture were riveting theatre, delivered with punchy edge-of-the-seat authority." **** The Scotsman Read review

Paul Lewis Plays Beethoven, November 2009

"The sheer sense of scale he [Lewis] brought to the cadenzas will live with me for a long time, and in this he was matched with utterly committed playing from the SCO whose natural brass lent colour without being distracting. The sharpness of attack from Andrew Manze added to the craggy grandeur of the reading and showed the orchestra at its very best." Music-Web International Read review

"It was a memorable performance that blended well with the orchestra, and was greatly appreciated by the audience whose appreciative clapping swelled like a wave." **** Edinburgh Guide Read review

"The highlight was undoubtedly the British pianist Paul Lewis performing the Beethoven concerto with a mixture of verve, style and intellect that thoroughly
delighted the audience and brought the house down at the finale."  Press and Journal

"Manze pepped up the orchestral score with sharply defined wind and brass, and an urgency that matched Lewis's." **** Scotsman Read review

"...the crystalline tone and understated precision of Lewis’s playing well matched by the dramatic yet delicate orchestral playing. It wasn’t a showy or a driven performance but it had a momentum of its own." *** The Herald Read review

Max at 75, November 2009

"This electric performance — in the presence of Davies — a powerful gathering of forces under Knussen, the landscape of intermittently driven intensity and windy fragments was brilliantly conveyed by the SCO. A fitting birthday tribute."
**** Times Online Read review

"The focus of Friday's concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra may have been on Peter Maxwell Davies' Symphony No 4, but that was just one riveting component in a brilliantly-conceived programme." ***** The Scotsman Read review

CL@SIX - Myths and Legends, October 2009

"the SCO’s performance of King Arthur was fresh and sprightly, the orchestra neither slavishly copying a period instrument style of performance nor treating the music like later repertoire, but finding a distinct performing style entirely in keeping with the music." **** The Herald

German Romantics, October 2009

"Martin produced a gorgeous honeyed tone from the instrument even in the softest passages, which he played with such delicacy it sounded as if the music was underwater..."  **** The Scotsman Read review

"...another world-class performance by a power-driven, ultra-polished SCO in
immaculate form, with an astonishing display of musicality, acrobatic dexterity and spectacular, unforced virtuosity from its principal clarinettist, Maximiliano Martin." ***** The Herald

"It is surprisingly rare to see a performer who is as consistently engaging as Martin. A whole other connection with the music is apparent. His fantastic tone is present through all registers and all dynamics; his connection with the rest of the orchestra is effortless as the strings build up to solo entries and the wind colourfully interject throughout the melodic line." ***** The Journal Read review

Beethoven Five, October 2009

"...Swensen and the orchestra were practically airborne and looked as if they were having the ride of their lives..." ***** The Scotsman Read review

"...This has everything the SCO is renowned for – strings tight and precise, a woodwind section of typical excellence and a brass ensemble that added the flair the work’s undeniable grandeur..." Dundee Courier and Advertiser

"...this Fifth was astutely placed as the appropriately explosive climax to a programme that featured superior performances of a brace of very different beauties: Borodin’s gorgeously-seductive In the Steppes of Central Asia and Sibelius’s pulsating Violin Concerto, which received a performance of molten intensity from fine Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud..." **** The Herald

Unfinished Masterpieces, October 2009

"...far and away the finest performance of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony that I've heard in Edinburgh..." Music-Web International  Read review

"...the French-born director of New York's Mainly Mozart Festival drew from the players performances of remarkable precision and zeal". **** The Scotsman
Read review

"...a mesmeric performance by the SCO..." **** The Herald  Read review

***Click here to read reviews from January - September 2009***