We can't wait to share our first digital concert of 2021 with everyone and we begin the year with an enthralling performance of Stravinsky The Soldier's Tale, filmed at The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, back in November of last year. Conceived by Igor Stravinsky and Swiss writer C.F. Ramuz, The Soldier’s Tale is one of a guileless soldier, trudging home from war, who unknowingly makes a bargain with the Devil.

In return for his much-loved violin, he receives a magical book which can foretell the future and so brings him a great fortune. Eventually realising that wealth alone is meaningless and cannot buy happiness, the soldier deliberately loses a card game with the Devil in order to win back his violin, but the Devil is not so easily beaten…

Written at the end of the First World War, The Soldier’s Tale is a parable for all cultures and times.

Actor Matthew McVarish narrates this Faustian story, in which rhythms of ragtime, tango, waltz and march jostle for position in Stravinsky’s devilishly original score.

Filmed at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, this concert was broadcast via SCO’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

READ THE DIGITAL PROGRAMME