The Sunday Classics season at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall – Scotland’s only 5-star concert venue – features music from around the world. Coming up: the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra with Mozart’s G minor Symphony and Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3, followed by Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Symphony No. 5 (17th Sept); and the return of the Basel Chamber Orchestra directed by pianist Angela Hewitt for Mozart’s lyrical E-flat Piano Concerto and Bach’s pulsating D-minor Piano Concerto as well as works by Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams (1st Oct). 

The Usher Hall’s much praised acoustics make it one of the best concert halls in Europe for visiting orchestras and it has been the main venue for the Edinburgh International Festival since 1947. It is named for the brewing magnate Andrew Usher (1826-98), who gifted £100,000 to the City of Edinburgh to provide a venue for concerts and recitals. He died before his dream was realised and his widow officially opened the building on March 16, 1914.

The beautiful Edwardian building was given a modern twist with the addition of a soaring modern wing in 2009 and today it hosts a range of music concerts from rock, pop and classical to jazz, world and folk.