Festival Director, Fergus Linehan has unveiled the classical music programme at the heart of the Edinburgh International Festival in 2015.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus great choral works reverberate at the Usher Hall, including rare performance of Sibelius's Kullervo marking his 150th Anniversary, and Berlioz's epic Grande messe des morts.
Visiting orchestras include the San Francisco Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre Hevolutionnaire et Romantique, London Symphony Orchestra and ensembles including the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Le Concert Spirituel.
Scottish orchestras and artists playa central role in the International Festival's music programme, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Donald Runnicles, James MacMillan, Nicola Benedetti, and the Festival debut of Colin Currie.
Young performers include the starry talents of Anne-Sophie Mutter's virtuosic ensemble, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Festival debuts include Yuja Wang, Vasily Petrenko, Michael Spyres, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Richard Egarr, Lang Lang, and Rudolf Buchbinder.
Musical firsts in the world premiere of Andre Previn's Nonet and the Scottish premiere of Festival co-commission MacMillan's Second Percussion Concerto.
BBC Radio 3 to broadcast 13 Queen's Hall concerts live during the Festival and additional concerts in the autumn.
Stories of love, money, magic and ghosts come alive in major narrative musical works including The Rake's Progress, Kullervo and Petrushka.
The great names in classical music are set to flock to Edinburgh this summer in a programme of 49 concerts and recitals over the course of three weeks.
Long established Festival favourites including Ivan Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Andrew Davis, William Christie, Valery Gergiev and Donald Runnicles all return in 2015, joined by Gianandrea Noseda, Robin Ticciati and Vasily Petrenko on the podium.
2015 marks the first Festival appearances of major international soloists Yuja Wang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Rudolf Buchbinder, Colin Currie and Lang Lang.
The Usher Hall has been at the heart of the Festival from the beginning and has always remained the crucial continuum within the broad programme of music, theatre, dance and opera that has grown around its foundations.
The full programme for Edinburgh International Festival 2015 is unveiled on Wednesday 18 March, and all tickets to Festival 2015 go on sale on Saturday 28 March.