EIF: programmes and marketing

Edinburgh Music Review, 9/8/24

This article is the personal view of one of our regular contributors, Brian Bannatyne Scott.

What is your view? Let us know what you think in the Comments section.

I have now attended several concerts in the 2024 EIF, and feel it is necessary to make a few observations.

First of all, let me say that all the concerts have been exceptional in quality, and much appreciated by the audiences. That aspect of the Festival so far has been flawless, and perhaps even an advance on last year’s quality, and I want to make quite clear that I think the EIF is a force for good in the world and is to be encouraged and supported as much as possible, as a beacon for top class classical music in the under-funded contemporary scene.

 However, a new policy has been brought in as regards programmes for the concerts, and I believe this is a truly retrograde step. Instead of a physical programme on sale at all concerts and events, something which has been standard for as long as I have been attending or performing in the Festival, over more than 50 years, we are now presented with a free sheet which gives the bare minimum of information about the concert we are watching - the actual programme and running order, and the names of the orchestra, conductor and soloists. Very little other information is provided and the free sheet opens out into a poster. Now, for most of us attending Festival events, the days of sticking posters on our bedroom walls is long past, and so the waste of space where there could be information about the works we are hearing and the performers we are seeing is crazy.

In addition to the free sheet, there is a ‘souvenir programme,’ selling for an unbelievable £10, which has a bit more information, soloists’ biographies and orchestral players’ lists. This is like what we used to have as the programme, but with less detail, and at twice the price. Most of that information is online, but again, not nearly enough.

The ‘big’ programme for the St Matthew Passion on Sunday had information about the performers and a rambling article about Passions in general, but absolutely no information about why we were hearing Mendelssohn’s version of Bach’s original from 1829, how it differed from the original or even anything about the music.

The ‘big’ programme for the Bamberger Symphoniker on 6th August had a couple of pages about Hans Rott, but nothing about Mahler’s ‘Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen’ or about Bruckner’s Symphonic Prelude. Nothing at all! No words for the songs, no explanation of the meaning or the creation of the songs, and only a small biography of Catriona Morison. For £10!

 In addition, all the publicity for the EIF seems to revolve around the meaningless mantra, ‘Rituals that Unite us’, and so everything appears to be subservient to this over-arching but incomprehensible title.

 I want to say something here about the general publicity for many of the events. The audience for the Hans Rott concert was very poor, less than half capacity. All the marketing went into stuff about Hans Rott, of whom I venture to suggest 98% of the Festival audience were unaware. The fact that the music was fabulous and brilliantly played didn’t make up for the small audience. However, who decided not to publicise the singing of Edinburgh-born Catriona Morison, Cardiff Singer of the World in 2017, in a much loved and infrequently heard Mahler song cycle? I guarantee that the audience would have been much larger if there had been proper publicity for Catriona. Is the marketing department so involved in the Rituals aspect that they have forgotten that the vast majority of EIF tickets are bought by residents of Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular? Many have been attending the EIF since long before most/any of the marketing people were born.

I would plead for more information, not less, about the music and the performers.

As a performer myself, I hated when my audience didn’t know anything about me, or what I was singing, and if you come to either of my Festival concerts this year (Saturday 10th August 14.30 – New Town Church and Wednesday 14th August at 15.00 – St Michael’s Church, 1, Slateford Road), you will receive free programmes with copious notes and biographies!