A music and light show set against the mighty stone walls of Tantallon Castle is one of the highlights of the third Lammermuir Festival in East Lothian this September.
The cliff-edge castle, described by Historic Scotland as "absolutely the best 14th-century castle architecture anywhere in Scotland", is set against an impressive natural landscape that looks out across the Firth of Forth to Bass Rock.
Writer Aonghas MacNeacail and composer William Sweeney were commissioned by government arts agency Creative Scotland to create the site specific piece set at Tantallon.
The work aims to bring the building, its story and East Lothian’s tumultous past alive with music that will be performed by Red Note Ensemble. Imagery will be projected on the castle’s walls by Culture Creative, renowned for their recent light show in Belfast for the Titanic centenary.
With 23 performances and six new venues added, artistic directors Hugh MacDonald and James Waters say this year's festival is its "biggest yet".
Festival of Music
The 2012 programme (Friday 14 - Sunday 23 September 2012) ranges from symphony orchestra to solo guitar, from string quartet to a cappella renaissance music. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra return as does the young Navarra Quartet.
The Dunedin Consort opens the Festival with Bach’s St John Passion on Friday 14 September, preceding their new recording of the work due for release in 2013. NYCOS (National Youth Choir of Scotland) this year close the Festival with a performance of Fauré’s Requiem in partnership with Northern Sinfonia from the Sage in Newcastle, who make their Lammermuir debut.
Also making their first appearances at The Lammermuir Festival are the outstanding baroque groups Ensemble Marsyas and La Serinissima, as well as Gramophone Award-winning The Cardinall’s Musick on their year-long UK tour performing the music of William Byrd.
Rising star guitarist, Sean Shibe, is this year’s Young Artist in Residence, appearing in recital at Lennoxlove House on Tuesday 18 September, as soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Dunbar on Saturday 15 September, and in concert with the Navarra Quartet at Whitekirk on Sunday 23 September.
Guitar celebration
Lammermuir 2012 celebrates the guitar on Saturday 15 September with Dunbar Guitar: three concerts featuring the Maxwell String Quartet and leading guitarist Allan Neave, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Sean Shibe and ending in the unexpected setting of Belhaven Fruit Farm for a relaxed and fun evening of guitar music from around the world.
Actor Robert Hardy, well known for his roles as Siegfried in All Creatures Great and Small and Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films is also a highly respected historian. He was a personal friend of Patrick O’Brian, author of the famous seafaring novels which include ‘Master and Commander’. The concert on Sunday 16 September features excerpts read by Robert Hardy, interspersed with music from the books by Mozart, Boccherini, Haydn and Dittersdorf, performed by the Raeburn Quartet.
A new series of lunchtime recitals has a theme of ‘The Seasons’, devised and performed by Joseph Middleton, an already highly acclaimed young accompanist. He has assembled a cast of four exciting and charismatic young singers: Sophie Bevan, soprano; Andrew Kennedy, tenor; Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano and Marcus Farnsworth, baritone. The lunchtime recitals are presented in association with BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast in February 2013.
Handel day
Saturday 22 September is The Lammermuir Festival’s Handel Day.The festival looks at several aspects of this great composer, his early career in Italy and his charming organ concerti. Close to the anniversary of the Battle of Prestonpans (21 September) Rob Howarth looks at music linked to the Jacobite rising: Getting a Handel on the Jacobite Rising.
New Venues
The Lammermuir Festival spans fifteen performance venues, including six new for 2012. They range from churches to historic private houses and from a distillery to the ruins of Tantallon.
The Festival brings a rare chance to see inside some fine houses not normally open to the public: Yester House, where Hebrides Ensemble perform on Monday 17 September, was home for many years to composer Gian Carlo Menotti and his family still lives there.
Lennoxlove House, where Sean Shibe plays on Tuesday 18 September, is the home of the Duke of Hamilton, Scotland’s premier peer; and Winton House in Pencaitland has among its many points of interest an impressive collection of fine art, including works by Van Dyck and Canaletto.
The Lammermuir Festival’s premier venue is St Mary’s Church, Haddington, which is one of the finest remaining active medieval churches in Scotland. St Mary’s in Haddington hosts five performances, including the opening and closing concerts of the Festival.
Two rather different 2012 venues are Glenkinchie Distillery and Belhaven Fruit Farm.
Provost of East Lothian, Councillor Ludovic Broun-Lindsay says, “The Council is very pleased to pledge its continued support for The Lammermuir Festival which has quickly gained a national and international reputation for its programme of superb classical music performed by leading artists, orchestras and ensembles. I look forward to the concerts in September and congratulate all those who work so hard to provide us with an irresistible combination of wonderful music played in magnificent historical locations such as St Mary’s Church and Lennoxlove House.”
Education
The festival also continues its partnership with Live Music Now taking talented young performers into schools, as well as offering open rehearsals, and ‘meet the artist’ events.
The fest, which works closely with Jewel & Esk College and Queen Margaret University, also runs a ‘youth critic scheme’ and a youthful front of house team keeps the fest ticking over while giving students hands-on experience.
Not just music
- Festival Talks This year the Festival presents a series of free, ticketed talks giving an insight into the event including Artistic Directors Hugh MacDonald and James Waters; Young Artist in Residence, Sean Shibe; the Dunedin Consort’s John Butt and La Serenissima’s Adrian Chandler.
- Festival Walks Mercat Tours offer two guided walks, suitable for all ages, discovering the history and stories of Haddington, including the famous East Lothian witch trials.
- Festival Gardens Four of East Lothian’s finest gardens are open during the festival: Johnstounburn House, Humbie; Broadwoodside, Gifford; Shepherd House, Inveresk and St Mary’s Pleasance, Haddington.