Preview: Strings Across the Centuries at East Neuk Festival
The East Neuk Festival starts at the end of June with a weekend of sophisticated and lively jazz (Gwilym Simcock Trio and Budapest Café Orchestra), as well as some provocative ideas and discussions on the Littoral programme. The week continues with an inventive daily programme of high class music spanning baroque to contemporary, featuring an array of world class performers including violinists Hugo Ticciati and Alexander Sitkovestsky, fiddler Duncan Chisholm, violist Maxim Rysanov and cellist Philip Higham, two celebrated American string quartets (Brentano Quartet and the acclaimed young Calidore Quartet), classical accordionist Andreas Borregaard, soprano Mhairi Lawson, pianist Ashley Wass, the Dunedin Consort and John Butt, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra which has always been the touchstone of the Festival. As ever, the atmospheric venues and beautiful countryside and seascape of the East Neuk play an important role in the Festival’s success.
The notion of time travel permeates the core Festival with music spanning three centuries in celebration of a special 300 year old Stradivarius violin that has been lent to the Festival this year. With J S Bach at the heart of things, these inventive concerts journey back and forth across time with music from composers including Britten, Gubaidulina, Mozart, Piazzola, Rehnqvist, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi, among others.
Time Traveller concerts at 7.30pm on Monday 29 June (Dunino Church), 30 June (Kilconquhar Church), 1 July (Cambo Barn), 2 July (St Monans Church at 4pm) and 4 July (Crail Church at 11.30am).
The 2015 Festival finale is right in the 21 st century with the world premiere of a special ENF commission from Pulitzer Prize/Grammy Award-winning American composer John Luther Adams. From a Distance , written for 32 amateur and professional horn players led by Alec Frank-Gemmill, critically acclaimed young principal horn of the SCO, will be performed in the grounds of Cambo Estate for a promenade audience which ill include John Luther Adams himself.
Sunday 5 July 4pm Cambo House – From A Distance (John Luther Adams) and other surprises
Always supportive of exceptionally talented young musicians, the Festival invests in the future and launches the ENF Retreat this year. Music Director Alexander Janiczek and his team of mentors will coach and rehearse eight string players over several intensive days, culminating in two showcase performances.
Thurs 2 July 11.30am Crail Church – Retreat Concert 1 including Mozart Piano Quartet in Gm, K478
Fri 3 July 11.30am Crail Church – Retreat Concert No 2 including Mendelssohn Octet in E flat, Op 20
Full programme information, day by day www.eastneukfestival.com