welcome!
Haddington Concert Society presents six concerts annually from October to March in the MUSIC CLOSE UP SERIES, which is subsidised by a grant from Enterprise Music Scotland, whose help we acknowledge with gratitude. All concerts take place in the Assembly Room of Haddington's Georgian Town House, the home of our fine Bösendorfer concert grand piano.
This year we present:
Sunday 11 October 2015, 7.30pm · Edinburgh Quartet
Sunday 1 November 2015, 7.30pm · Cameo Clarinet Quartet
Sunday 15 November 2015, 3pm · Jean-Selim Abdelmoula, piano
Sunday 31 January 2016, 3pm · James Gilchrist • Anna Tilbrook
Sunday 14 Feburary 2016, 3pm · Trio Isimsiz
Sunday 8 March 2016 7.30pm · Alexa Beattie • Elspeth Wyllie
In addition, the celebrated Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam will give our 11th annual Gala Piano Recital on Saturday 2 April 2016, 7.30pm.
All are welcome to our concerts; subscribers enjoy reduced ticket prices. Do join us!
This year we present:
Sunday 11 October 2015, 7.30pm · Edinburgh Quartet
Sunday 1 November 2015, 7.30pm · Cameo Clarinet Quartet
Sunday 15 November 2015, 3pm · Jean-Selim Abdelmoula, piano
Sunday 31 January 2016, 3pm · James Gilchrist • Anna Tilbrook
Sunday 14 Feburary 2016, 3pm · Trio Isimsiz
Sunday 8 March 2016 7.30pm · Alexa Beattie • Elspeth Wyllie
In addition, the celebrated Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam will give our 11th annual Gala Piano Recital on Saturday 2 April 2016, 7.30pm.
All are welcome to our concerts; subscribers enjoy reduced ticket prices. Do join us!
a word from our chairman
This season we start in Russia. Balakirev is perhaps not as well-known as his contemporaries Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, although his music contains the same melodic delights as theirs. Nicholas Walker, trained at the Moscow Conservatory, has made a specialism of Balakirev’s piano music and has performed it to great acclaim internationally, including St. Petersburg, where critics wondered why it was left to an Englishman to remind Russia of one of her greatest composers! The sonata is a must hear.
Dick Lee’s Swingtet is a new format for an old friend. So, it’s just sunk in: you voted yes and Scotland voted no, or you voted no and Scotland voted yes. Either way you need cheering up: Dick Lee's hot swing band, featuring classic tunes by the likes of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Glenn Miller, with Alison Affleck, (Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the recent Scottish Jazz Awards), performing the great songs of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and others, will help you face the post-referendum world again. And if it went the way you wanted, what better way to celebrate?
We are delighted to be presenting again the magnificent Gould Piano Trio playing piano trios by the great masters past and contemporary. The Macmillan is a new work commissioned by the Gould’s and is his second foray into the medium. Be amongst the first to hear a wonderful contemporary Scottish work, by a truly great composer, played by one of the greatest piano trios of their generation.
After the success of our experiment with an afternoon concert last season, we are presenting our first two concerts of 2015 in the afternoon. In January we welcome members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s legendary wind section (including Maximiliano Martin returning after his Brahms recital a couple of years ago) joined by Alasdair Beatson with a concert including Mozart’s and Beethoven’s quintets for piano and winds (oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon).
Our second afternoon concert is in February when we welcome performers selected and sponsored by the Tunnell Trust. The Ishizuka Liu Duo (Yuka Ishizuka, violin, is from Japan and Ji Liu, piano, is Chinese), playing a selection of masterworks for violin and piano including, perhaps a trifle early, Beethoven’s Spring Sonata (when is the last time you heard that live?). A chance to hear how young Asian artistes have embraced the Western musical canon and perform it with flair and understanding.
We are back to our regular evening slot in March, with a concert by the stars of tomorrow from St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. It is a long time since we took the opportunity to showcase such young talent, but those who remember our previous concerts from St Mary’s will know they do not disappoint. The standard is higher than ever. Expect a varied and wonderful musical evening.
So it is appropriate that our gala recital in 2015 will be given by a past pupil of St Mary’s. It is our 10th Gala Recital and we wanted to really mark the occasion. We therefore approached Steven Osborne to see if he could return once again to Haddington and to our delight he accepted, offering a most generous and enticing programme. Nothing I can write will increase your desire to attend this concert!
To more mundane matters: there are new chairs (with cushions!) in the hall, but there are only 120 and we have been told in no uncertain terms not to admit any more than that. So I say as I always do: buy early to avoid disappointment!
John Finch
Dick Lee’s Swingtet is a new format for an old friend. So, it’s just sunk in: you voted yes and Scotland voted no, or you voted no and Scotland voted yes. Either way you need cheering up: Dick Lee's hot swing band, featuring classic tunes by the likes of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Glenn Miller, with Alison Affleck, (Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the recent Scottish Jazz Awards), performing the great songs of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and others, will help you face the post-referendum world again. And if it went the way you wanted, what better way to celebrate?
We are delighted to be presenting again the magnificent Gould Piano Trio playing piano trios by the great masters past and contemporary. The Macmillan is a new work commissioned by the Gould’s and is his second foray into the medium. Be amongst the first to hear a wonderful contemporary Scottish work, by a truly great composer, played by one of the greatest piano trios of their generation.
After the success of our experiment with an afternoon concert last season, we are presenting our first two concerts of 2015 in the afternoon. In January we welcome members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s legendary wind section (including Maximiliano Martin returning after his Brahms recital a couple of years ago) joined by Alasdair Beatson with a concert including Mozart’s and Beethoven’s quintets for piano and winds (oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon).
Our second afternoon concert is in February when we welcome performers selected and sponsored by the Tunnell Trust. The Ishizuka Liu Duo (Yuka Ishizuka, violin, is from Japan and Ji Liu, piano, is Chinese), playing a selection of masterworks for violin and piano including, perhaps a trifle early, Beethoven’s Spring Sonata (when is the last time you heard that live?). A chance to hear how young Asian artistes have embraced the Western musical canon and perform it with flair and understanding.
We are back to our regular evening slot in March, with a concert by the stars of tomorrow from St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. It is a long time since we took the opportunity to showcase such young talent, but those who remember our previous concerts from St Mary’s will know they do not disappoint. The standard is higher than ever. Expect a varied and wonderful musical evening.
So it is appropriate that our gala recital in 2015 will be given by a past pupil of St Mary’s. It is our 10th Gala Recital and we wanted to really mark the occasion. We therefore approached Steven Osborne to see if he could return once again to Haddington and to our delight he accepted, offering a most generous and enticing programme. Nothing I can write will increase your desire to attend this concert!
To more mundane matters: there are new chairs (with cushions!) in the hall, but there are only 120 and we have been told in no uncertain terms not to admit any more than that. So I say as I always do: buy early to avoid disappointment!
John Finch
