Music at Paxton
Welcome return of the Borders chamber music festival
Music at Paxton returns this year for a 10-day festival with an exciting programme featuring established and emerging artists. Among those taking part are pianist Steven Osborne with an all-Ravel programme, tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook in Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, pianist Imogen Cooper, playing Ravel and Schubert, and soprano Elizabeth Watts with pianist Sholto Kynoch in Strauss’s Four Last Songs. The Gould Piano Trio play Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and the Maxwell Quartet, a young Scottish ensemble making a name for themselves internationally play Haydn and Beethoven. They also join Imogen Cooper for a concert featuring Dvorak’s Piano Quintet. The Festival is book-ended by two baroque bands, playing music with links to Paxton House. On the 18th July the Brook Street Band play pieces associated with the European Grand Tours, and Concerto Caledonia round off the week with Scottish and Italian music popular in 1820 to commemorate the bicentenary of the Union Chain Bridge.
Other events include two concerts by young folk artists in association with Live Music Now Scotland – in the past these have provided a good showcase for emerging talent. There’s a family concert in Kelso, a fun session for young children, and a master class for young singers with Anna Tilbrook and James Gilchrist.
Most events take place in the beautiful Picture Gallery at Paxton House. Social distancing means that tickets for each performance will be limited. However each concert, lasting an hour, without an interval, will be performed twice, in the afternoon and early evening.
This year for the first time there will be online introductions to the programme by Artistic Director, Angus Smith, and several concerts will be recorded for streaming during the Festival.
General booking opens on 26th April. Paxton is a lovely venue, with plenty to see in the house and estate and in the surrounding area. It’s easy to reach from Edinburgh by car – it’s three miles off the A1 - and 45 minutes by train to Berwick on Tweed, and then a ten-minute taxi journey.
