Published: 02 Jun 2017
15 -24 September 2017
The award-winning Lammermuir Festival brings ten days of beautiful music from Friday 15 to Sunday 24 September 2017 in beautiful places across the historic county of East Lothian in Scotland. Although just an hour from Edinburgh, the region remains one of Scotland’s best-kept secrets and offers a host of venues from tiny churches along its coastline, to grand houses in its countryside. With music carefully matched to every venue, hearing music at Lammermuir Festival is a very special experience.
The Lammermuir Festival, founded in 2010, has become a significant part of the UK’s cultural calendar and in May 2017 was awarded a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. Its programme of classical music ranges from large-scale symphony concerts to intimate recitals, and features the UK’s and international leading musicians, as well as exciting new talent.
Artistic directors Hugh Macdonald and James Waters said: “Lammermuir 2017 is chock full of wonderful artists. Both Quatuor Mosaïques and the Gould Piano Trio have residencies, Alban Gerhardt is in recital with Steven Osborne and John Butt plays Bach’s Goldberg Variations. We look at Pilgrimage with Tenebrae performing Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles and the Orlando Consort singing Dufay’s Santiago Mass at Whitekirk. There is much, much more including Handel from the Dunedin Consort and Mahler from the BBCSSO. Above all East Lothian is a great place to have a festival! We never run out of new concert venues to visit and this year is no exception with three new locations including the wonderful Granary at Eastfield. We look forward enormously to September and to a very exciting musical journey.”
Alan Morrison, Head of Music, Creative Scotland, said: “Fresh from its prestigious win at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, the Lammermuir Festival continues to bring world-class talent to the most wonderfully atmospheric venues in East Lothian. This year’s programme spans the centuries, with gems from the classical repertoire nestling up beside ground-breaking premieres. It also embraces all generations, as music veterans from home and abroad – Quatuor Mosaiques and Dunedin Consort among them – share the bill with future stars such as pianist Daniel Kharitonov and the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Creative Scotland is delighted to support such a diverse and exciting event.”
Lammermuir Festival is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund.
Angela Leitch, Chief Executive of East Lothian Council says: “The Lammermuir Festival brings another feast of delightful classical music to the people of East Lothian and beyond. With three new locations for 2017, many more audiences can now enjoy ten days of this wonderful programme.”
Lammermuir Festival is supported by East Lothian Council.
New for this year is a project with composer Stuart MacRae who is to be Lammermuir Festival Composer in Association, supported by the PRS Foundation Composers’ Fund.
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Martyn Brabbins open the festival on Friday 15 September at 8pm in St Mary’s, Haddington featuring Mahler Symphony No 4 and soprano Rowan Pierce. Sponsored by McInroy and Wood.
John Butt, a world expert on Bach, takes us into Saturday 16 September with a harpsichord recital of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at 3pm in the idyllic setting of Humbie Kirk.
Saturday evening welcomes back one of Scotland’s finest ensembles, Hebrides Ensemble,who play Howells and Schubert in Dirleton Kirk at 7.45pm.
The chamber music continues with Huw Daniel, violin, Alison McGillivray, Viola da gamba and Jan Waterfield, harpsichord who join us for a programme of Bach, Buxtehude and Telemann at 3pm in Garvald Village Hall on Sunday 17 September.
The first of two events with film and music is on Sunday 17 September at 7.45pm in St Mary’s, Haddington. Acclaimed vocal ensemble The Orlando Consort present Voices Appeared, combining music from the time of Joan of Arc, born around 1412, with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s powerful and moving film depiction of her final trial and martyrdom. The Orlando Consort sing a live soundtrack of early 15th century sacred and secular music in a building which itself was consecrated around the time of Joan of Arc’s birth.
The Orlando Consort sing a second programme on Monday 18 September at 3pm. This is of 15th century music believed to have been sung for pilgrims, including work by the greatest composer of the middle ages, Dufay. The Orlando Consort perform in the perfectly fitting 15th century church of St Mary’s Whitekirk, which has been a place of pilgrimage since medieval times.
Festival Patron, the outstanding Scottish pianist Steven Osborne,performs a solo programme of Feldman and George Crumb on Sunday 17 September at 10pm in St Mary’s, Haddington. Steven’s second recital is with his chamber music partner of over twenty years, cellist, Alban Gerhardt on Thursday 21 September at 7.45pm in Dunbar Parish Church.
The first of five concerts in the internationally renowned Gould Piano Trio’s festival residency begins on Monday 18 September. With Haydn at their heart, the morning Coffee Concerts each feature a Haydn Piano Trio, plus works by other composers, and include a Scottish premiere by the brilliant young British Composer Mark Simpson. Audiences have coffee, cakes from master baker Falko Burkert, and an informal daily briefing from festival directors, Hugh Macdonald and James Waters. Coffee Concerts are at 11am on Monday 18, Tuesday 19, Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 September in the Town House, Haddington.
The Gould Piano Trio’s final concert features Haydn, Beethoven and the world premiere of the first of Lammermuir Festival’s Stuart MacRae Prometheus commissions, “Sunrises” on Saturday 23 September at 11am in Stenton Parish Church.
Quatuor Mosaïques are recognised worldwide as the finest string quartet playing on period instruments. Their residency at Lammermuir comprises three programmes based around Mozart and Haydn, and a rarely heard Donizetti String Quartet. Quatuor Mosaïques play on Monday 18 September at 7.45pm in St Baldred’s Church, North Berwick, Tuesday 19 September at 3pm in Chalmers Memorial Church, Port Seton and Wednesday 20 Sept at 7.45pm in Aberlady Parish Church.
Lammermuir welcomes back the Royal Northern Sinfonia to St Mary’s in Haddington at 7.45pm on Tuesday 19 September. Its music director, the international pianist Lars Vogt directs from the keyboard in a programme of three Beethoven Piano Concertos numbers 2, 3 and 5 ‘The Emperor’.
On Wednesday 20 September at 3pm, the festival visits one of its most beautiful places, Lennoxlove House - a venue unique to Lammermuir Festival. Cellist Alban Gerhardt performs two of Bach’s Cello Suites and Kodály’s Sonata in the Great Hall of Lennoxlove.
The second film and music event is given by Scotland’s premiere new music group, Red Note Ensemble who perform David Sawer’s music for the 1928 silent film, The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra. The programme on Friday 22 September at 2.30 and 4.15pm in Eastfield Farm Granary at Whittinghame, features the world premiere of a new work by Thomas Butler, and David Sawer’s The Lighthouse Keepers. Red Note perform with members of the Red Note Academy in music by contemporary composers Luke Bedford, and Thomas Butler in an earlier concert on Friday 22 September at 12.00pm in Tyninghame Village Hall.
Opera returns to the Lammermuir programme this year, with Ryedale Festival Opera’s production of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, in a new English translation by John Warrack, directed by Nina Brazier. Eamonn Dougan conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Ensemble on Friday 22 September at 7.15pm in the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh. Sponsored by Turcan Connell. This performance is sponsored by Turcan Connell.
Following the Orlando Consort earlier in the festival, another acclaimed British vocal ensemble, Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short,continue the theme of pilgrimage on Saturday 23 September at 7.15pm in St Mary’s, Haddington. They perform the Scottish premieres of two works: Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles; and Footsteps by Owain Park, which was commissioned for Tenebrae’s 15th anniversary and here, features the young voices of the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
At only eighteen years old, Daniel Kharitonov is a Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition prizewinner, and makes his Scottish debut at the Lammermuir Festival in a programme of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt on Sunday 24 September at 3pm in Dunbar Parish Church.
The final concert of the festival is with The Dunedin Consort who have performed at Lammermuir every year. On Sunday 24 September at 7.15pm in St Mary’s Haddington, John Butt directs Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with soloists Mary Bevan, Anna Stéphany, Nicholas Mulroy and Hilary Summers. Closing concert sponsored by EAE.
For additional press and media details please contact:
Jane Nicolson jane@janenicolson.com 07887 500977
TICKETS
To book: www.lammermuirfestival.co.uk
0131 473 20000
Hub Tickets, Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NE
Buying tickets on the day of the concert: Tickets may be available for cash only from the venue one hour before performance. You can enquire about availability one hour before the performance only on 07876 170888.
Lammermuir Festival is funded by The Lamp of Lothian, Creative Scotland and East Lothian Council. It is supported by its sponsors,EAE, McInroy & Wood and Turcan Connell; by the Binks Trust, Scotland’s Churches Trusts and the Stevenston Trust; and by many individual donors. Its partners are BBC Radio 3 and Queen Margaret University.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots andwww.facebook.com/ CreativeScotland
The Lamp of Lothian is one of East Lothian’s leading charities and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The trust, named after the ancient Franciscan Friary “The Lamp of the Lothians” was founded in 1967 by Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton to restore a group of derelict, historic buildings in Haddington to make them available for community initiatives. Fifty years on, community activities in the buildings are thriving and include the Bridge Centre Motor Cycle and Music projects, Poldrate Arts and Craft Cetnre, Haddington Camera Club and Podrate Quilters, along with other charities and community groups. From the early days, the Lamp has organised concert seasons with international artists including Yehudi Menuhin and Cleo Laine. Its musical activity was reinvigorated in 2010 by the launch of the Lammermuir Fesitval, now regarded as one of the top classical music festivals in the UK.
