A summer festival of top class international chamber musicis taking place in Paxton House on the banks of the River Tweed next month.
Music at Paxton, being held from 13–22 July, will feature daily concerts offering an intimate, friendly and relaxed experience and take place in Paxton House’s splendid Picture Gallery.
With its large, domed roof-light that lets in the summer sun, and walls hung high with paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, it is an idyllic setting for chamber music.
No stranger to Paxton, Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson opens the festival with a double bill in which he is joined by distinguished colleagues Colin Scobie (violin), Robert Plane (clarinet) and Philip Higham (cello). The first concert (Friday, 13 July, 7pm) features works for clarinet, cello and piano by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. For the second concert (Friday, 13 July, 90pm) the mood changes with a move to the 20th century for Olivier Messiaen’s intensely moving Quartet for the End of Time.
The master of French piano music Pascal Rogé, is joined by his wife and duo partner Ami Rogé, (Saturday 14 July at 7.30pm) for a programme for two pianos comprised of French music from World War One. Stravinsky’s monumental Rite of Spring is contrasted with the three capricious pieces of Debussy’s En Blanc et Noir and ends with Ravel’s La Valse.
The following day, Rogé returns with a more lighthearted solo recital of music by Satie, Debussy and Poulenc (110am) before giving a piano masterclass for students of all ages (1.15pm).
Trio Apaches comprises Matthew Trusler (violin), Thomas Carroll (cello) and Ashley Wass (piano). On Sunday 15 July at 6pm, their programme includes John Ireland’s somber ‘war’ Piano Trio, completed in 1917 and said to represent ‘the boys going over the top’ and Debussy’s glorious La Mer in an arrangement by Scottish based composer Sally Beamish.
Colin Scobie returns as leader of the Maxwell Quartet, winners of the 2017 Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, to perform Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven on Tuesday 17 July at 7.30pm. Master of the fortepiano, Kristian Bezuidenhout, returns to Paxton on Wednesday 18 July at 7.30pm for a solo recital featuring some of the key works of the Classical period including Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert.
Edinburgh classical guitarist Sean Shibe (Photo: Kaupo Kikkas)
Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe has been highly praised by audiences and critics worldwide. On Thursday 19 July at 7.30pm his programme includes Scottish Lute Music from the Balcarres, Rowallan, Straloch and Wemyss manuscripts alongside works by Dowland, Villa- Lobos and J S Bach.
The second double bill at the festival comes from Hebrides Ensemble, with two 60-minute concerts on Friday 20 July at 7pm and 9pm. The repertoire includes Osborne’s The Piano Tuner, Debussy’s Piano Trio, Judith Weir’s Distance and Enchantment and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor.
Renowned cellist Steven Isserlis and his Canadian duo partner Connie Shih (Saturday 21 July at 7.30pm) perform works by both Clara and Robert Schumann as well as Irish born Augusta Holmès, the first female composer to have a work premiered at the Paris Opera in 1895. While this is his Music at Paxton debut, Isserlis has close ties with the Borders having studied in his youth with Jane Cowan at the Cello Centre at Edrom House, Berwickshire.
BBC New Generation Artist Benjamin Appl was one of the last singers to be mentored by the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. For this Schubert song cycle on Sunday 22 July at 2pm, he is joined by his regular collaborator, the distinguished pianist Graham Johnson.
No strangers to Music at Paxton, Chiaroscuro Quartet close the festival on Sunday 22 July at 6pm with Haydn’s chuckling ‘Joke’ quartet, the gentle lyricism of Beethoven’s Op 18 No 3 and Mendelssohn’s heartfelt Quartet in E flat.
Presenting musicians early in their careers, and integrating them into the Music at Paxton programme, remains of key importance to the festival, who proudly continue their relationship with Live Music Now Scotland. On Saturday 14 July at 3.30pm, Glasgow based guitarists Knox & Ion perform a relaxing programme of Latin, world and jazz music.
Hannah Rarity 2018 BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of the Year
Recent winner of the prestigious BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2018, Hannah Rarity, is joined by guitarist Luc McNally in Paxton Marquee on Saturday 21 July at 3.30pm for a repertoire of Scottish, Irish, English and American songs.
Once again, in conjunction with Live Music Now Scotland and Paxton House, the extremely successful free one-hour taster concerts ‘Music at Paxton… Plus’ return to the festival. This year the festival welcomes Hungarian born Balázs Renczás (cello) and Viktória Sarkadi (piano); the Scelerisque Duo, (Sunday 6 May at 2.30pm) who met while studying at the Béla Bartók Conservatoire of Music and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and pianist Jocelyn Freeman (Sunday 3 June at 2.30pm), who began her career as a cathedral chorister and released her solo piano album Night and Novelties in 2013.
Helen Jamieson, artistic director for Music at Paxton, said: ‘I am thrilled that we are able to present artists of the international stature of Steven Isserlis, the Chiaroscuro Quartet, Benjamin Appl, Graham Johnson and Kristian Bezuidenhout, as well as talented young artists who are following in their footsteps.’
2018 also sees Music at Paxton welcome a new artistic director who will lead the creative direction of the festival from 2019 and beyond. Angus Smith will take over from Helen Jamieson in October and is a freelance singer based in Oxford, and the current Artistic Director of Music in the Round in Sheffield. Helen helped to found Music at Paxton in 2005/6 and under her artistic leadership the festival has grown to a ten-day summer festival and welcomed international artists to the Scottish Borders such as Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Tiberghien (violin and piano) and the Doric Quartet, who have become regular visitors to the Festival.
Angus said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to have been given the opportunity to contribute to the wonderful Music at Paxton Festival. Throughout my music career I have found it to be a hugely rewarding and enjoyable experience to work in a chamber music environment, both as a performer and as a programmer.
‘The close dialogue that takes place between musicians and the audience in this most intimate form of music-making is incredibly exciting and sharing the resulting experiences with others is a true joy.
‘I am of course aware of the brilliant work of Helen Jamieson and her colleagues in establishing and developing Music at Paxton as a major and vital organisation promoting the very best music and musicians. I am looking forward to bringing something of my own individual perspective to future programmes and activities, but my starting point will unequivocally be to maintain the record of excellence and imagination provided by Helen.’
This year also marks the tercentenary year of Thomas Chippendale’s birth and Paxton House is hosting an exclusive programme dedicated to the celebrated 18th century cabinetmaker.
From the 5 June-28 August, Paxton House hosts The Paxton Style: Neat & Substantially Good for Chippendale 300, displaying key collection pieces of Chippendale furniture along with outstanding and rarely seen pieces on loan from private and public collections. This exhibition defines the Paxton Style: a significant, and under-explored, element of the master cabinetmaker’s late oeuvre. The exhibition is free to attend and will be open daily from 11am – 3pm.
Music at Paxton is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
Music at Paxton was formed in 2006 and from modest beginnings has grown into a key event on the UK chamber music circuit. Music at Paxton is a limited company and a registered charity, aiming to bring high quality music to the Eastern Scottish Borders, an area not currently well served with classical music. The Festival is committed to breaking down barriers and encourages young people to attend through generous concessions and free events.
Book tickets HERE, or call 0131 473 2000. Tickets cost from £5 to £25.
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