A certain sartorial note crept into the awarding of the latest batch of Bank of Scotland Herald Angels at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre on Saturday morning with Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills outdoing Traverse artistic director Philip Howard in the vibrancy of his shirt and Kenny Young performing a song about the laundry difficulties of the touring musician.
Howard was the recipient of the week's Bank of Scotland Herald Archangel for consistent and lasting contribution to Edinburgh's Festivals. Due to step down from the Traverse job at the end of the year, he has directed productions at both Festival and Fringe, and overseen an era at Scotland's new writing theatre when a new generation of Scots playwrights has found international success. Most of the creative team at the new National Theatre of Scotland made significant steps in their careers at Howard's Traverse.
Mills was collecting awards for two contrasting but essential elements of his debut programme. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, under conductor Gustavo Dudamel, produced a performance of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony at the Usher Hall which had critics reaching for the superlatives. A product of a music education system that pulls young people out of poverty, the orchestra's performance matched its sensational story, despite a problematic journey to Edinburgh, and Mills promised that they would return. His survey of the music of Monteverdi included concerts of all the madrigals in Greyfriars Kirk by Concerto Italiano, and the group directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini also received a Herald Angel.
Recognition for music on the Fringe this week ranged from Americans Kenny Young and the Eggplants with their pun-laden family-friendly songs at the Acoustic Music Centre, to the sonic experience that is English artist Ray Lee's installation Siren at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall under the auspices of Assembly Aurora Nova. His 42 loudspeakers rotating on motorised arms supported by tripods of different heights create an unforgettable aural and visual experience.
Music is also central to the success of Subway, by theatre company Vanishing Point, which features a seven-piece Kosovar band providing the soundtrack for a story about the near future in Leith and a world where surveillance and eroded civil liberties reflect an increasingly divided society. The award was collected by director Matthew Lenton as the show was going on - as was Uninvited Guests It Is Like It Ought To Be, another vision of the world, although this time a sceptical view of idyllic rural England. Its director, Paul Clark, also collected an Angel.
Bob Karper's show Big in Japan is his second autobiographical journey to visit the Fringe, following That's Me On The Left In The Parka, some five years ago. This show, dealing with friendship, already has a possible successor developing in his mind, so he suggested that fewer years may elapse before his return with another instalment.
The week's Little Devil winners, John Moran and his neighbour Saori, now reunited for their self-titled show, after injury kept the acrobatic Saori out of the starting line-up, confirmed their entitlement for the award by missing the ceremony. Wolfgang Hoffmann, director of the Aurora Nova programme of which they are part, fortunately was on hand to pick up on their behalf.
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