All Events between Fri 14 Aug and Sun 6 Sep

Bach's music offers a promise of redemption while the cast build an intricate and detailed picture of day to day life.

Göttingen International Handel Festival re-imagine Admeto's classical Greek world as the world of the Japanese samurai.

Four great musicians come together to bring Festival audiences music by Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Famed for its performance of Bach's works Masaaki Suzuki's Bach Collegium Japan is joined here by three outstanding singers in a concert of solo cantatas.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus lead a rousing night of Handel's most famous works. Pyrovision choreograph a stunning fireworks display with the music.

The highly acclaimed partnership of Donald Runnicles and the BBC SSO appears at the Festival for the first time since his appointment as Chief Conductor.

The creative team of Optimism discuss the process undertaken to create a 21st century take on Voltaire's Candide, as part of our Behind the Scenes and Conversations series.

Doris Dörrie, author, filmmaker and director of the opera Admeto in conversation, as part of our Comversations of Artists series.

Concerto Caledonia's dance band steps back in time for a colourful evening of Scottish dance music.

Wagner's rousing re-telling of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

This extraordinary youth orchestra performs with period instruments and for this concert has tripled its usual size, boasting 60 players.

Composer Giorgio Battistelli takes sixteen artisans sets them to work, producing a compelling and evocative symphony from your wildest imagination.

Silviu Purcarete's wild adaptation of this iconic tale is a large scale work with industrial music, remarkable staging and a huge cast. Macabre theatre on a grand scale.

In Hark!, singers relate the news of the day, recalling the way information was delivered to people prior to the Enlightenment and mass literacy. 

Children have been asked to answer some of the fundamental philosophical questions concerning art and aesthetics in an engagingly honest video response.

Greg Creek's drawings of Edinburgh, city of Enlightenment, encourage a visual journey that maps both place and time, with references to historical, contemporary and fictional events, people and subjects.

Christopher Maltman is renowned for the intensity, character and emotion of his singing. The Hebrides Ensemble is fast becoming a Festival favourite.

A concert of chorales by Bach and his inspirational predecessor Michael Praetorius.

Opera singers, musicians, half life-sized puppets and animated film are used to retell the Greek myth of Ulysses.

This new work is a series of debates between Darwin and Joseph’s long time collaborators, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein.

Digital film of animated clay figures presents a fictional encounter philosophical and theological thinkers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal.

Le Concert des Nations are experts in performing both the familiar music of Handel and the less-known compositions of Marais.

Letter Writing Project invites viewers to think about communicating with absent friends, family and loved ones by writing the letters they always meant to, but have never had the opportunity or time to do so.

The Lewis Psalm Singers present a joyful and at times plaintive concert which promises to be an intensely moving experience.

Verdi regarded Shakespeare's Scottish play as 'one of the greatest creations of man'.

The work of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and James MacMillan together in a celebration of their home nation, Scotland.  

Sir Roger Norrington, John Purser and Marjorie Rycroft discuss Music and the Enlightenment: Classical and Vernacular Traditions, as part of our Enlightenment Discussions and Talks series.

Coley questions belief systems and investigates architectural structures inhabited by and invested with faith.

Optimism transforms Voltaire's classic satire of enlightened insanity, Candide, into a cutting commentary on the no-worries bravura of the Australian swagger.

The Orchestra is famous for its fresh sound, with musicians playing on period instruments and pouring their passion into the music, led by Sir Roger Norrington.  

One of Bartók's most scintillating scores coupled with Esa-Pekka Salonen's Piano Concerto, dedicated to the pianist Yefim Bronfman, the soloist in this performance.

James Buchan and Andrew S Skinner discuss Political Economy: Adam Smith and Others, as part of our Enlightenment Discussions and Talks series at The Hub.

Performing on period instruments, Quatuor Mosaïques are respected throughout the world for their thoughtful and authentic interpretations of Haydn's chamber music.

The second of two concerts by the Ricercar Consort exploring some of Bach's earliest cantatas.

Roméo et Juliette is one of Berlioz's greatest & most original works. Often reduced to orchestral excerpts this concert offers a rare opportunity to hear the full work.

Geoffrey Boulton and Charles Withers discuss Science and the Enlightenment, as part of our Enlightenment Discussions and Talks series at The Hub.

Onora O'Neill, John V Pickstone and Martin Rees discuss Science and Tolerance, as part of our Enlightenment Discussions and Talks series at The Hub.

In the 18th century many musicians left Scotland to further their musical ambitions. They took European art styles and adapted them, weaving together elements of Scots song with the new-fangled baroque...

Scottish Ballet presents three works for the 2009 Festival.

Symphony No 70 is one of Haydn's most flamboyant pieces. In contrast, in his Seven last words of our saviour on the cross, all seven movements are slow and dark.

Acclaimed British artist Tacita Dean emphasizes the aspects of quiet devotion, internal contemplation and external dedication that defines this small ecclesiastical community.

Maggie Gee, Knud Haakonssen, Michael Kantor and Tom Wright discuss The Ages of Optimism and Pessimism: Utopian and Dystopian Ideas.

Huge forces gather to perform Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. His masterpiece is quintessentially British from the spine tingling opening to the symphonic climax.

Purcell's version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers an extraordinary variety of music.

The Last Witch is based on the historical account of the last woman to be executed for witchcraft in Scotland.

Testament of Cresseid completes the story left unfinished in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. The world premiere of this epic work is commissioned by the Festival.

Vocal ensemble Dialogos presents this 12th century vision in a new context with medieval polyphony producing a pure and expressive rendition of this ancient story.

Brahms' Variations on a theme by Haydn is a bold and diverse work with a phenomenal triumphant finale. Berio's love of folk music is clear.