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Classical | MUSIC
FESTIVAL COTTIER CHAMBER PROJECT Various venues, Glasgow, Fri 5–Fri 26 Jun
It’s difficult to believe that there used to be summers in Glasgow without the Cottier Chamber Project. Hardly a project any more, it’s now a full-blown festival in its fifth year with at least 60 events over almost the whole month of June. While there is now a newer dance strand to the festival (see preview, page 95), chamber music remains its core activity. Built up around Scotland’s own top-quality chamber
ensembles, a whole host of familiar names return with ever- inventive programming. Andy Saunders is artistic director, and finds it difficult to pick out particular highlights from such an eclectic mix, with concerts organised into different strands of series within the overall festival frame. ‘Shostakovich is going to be exciting,’ he says, ‘with some interesting pairings of pieces.’
The Maxwell Quartet, for instance, pair up the ‘String Quartet No 10’ with Carl Nielsen’s first quartet in celebration of his 150th birthday year. There is also a Lunchtime Lieder series at the Hunterian Museum with just one song cycle to digest in each concert. ‘There are ten completely different programmes, all are free, and each is about 20 minutes long,’ says Saunders. Plenty time left for more usual lunchtime fare then.
Even more imaginative is the intriguing contribution from violinist extraordinaire, Alexander Janiczek. ‘He’ll be appearing with shadow puppets,’ explains Saunders. ‘It will be bizarre. He’d read a book about a Russian violinist who worked with an Italian puppeteer and has wanted to do something similar with puppets for years, but no one had let him.’ Saunders granted that permiss ion, and Janiczek is delighted to fulfil his dream by being part of a puppet show, playing his violin, but unusually lit from behind in Bach, Biber and Berio by the puppet masters of Vision Mechanics. (Carol Main)
CLASSICAL HIGHLIGHTS
HITLIST
BBC SSO: PANUFNIK – A CELEBRATION: CONCERT 1 City Halls, Glasgow, Sat 20 Jun, glasgowconcerthalls. com Originally written for the celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin, the all-too-neglected Polish composer Andrzej Panuknik’s Violin Concerto is a piece which reflects Menuhin’s own personality. This is the first of a weekend of events celebrating one of the 20th century’s greatest composers.
DAVID DANIELS Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 4 Jul, thequeenshall. net Scotland and America come together in this special one-off concert to mark the 180th anniversary of the birth of the world’s greatest philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. It’s a rare chance to hear Daniels, one of the most acclaimed countertenors around, in recital.
GLASGOW
EDINBURGH
PAXTON
CONCERTO CALEDONIA EDINBURGH QUARTET
Cottiers Theatre, Fri 19 Jun, cottierchamberproject.com Early music ensemble, with an eclectic repertoire ranging from Renaissance music to Zappa, becomes Nathaniel Gow’s dance band. Part of the Cottier Chamber Project, see preview above.
NYOS SENIOR ORCHESTRA City Halls, Glasgow, Thu 16 July, glasgowconcerthalls.com Top young players from all over Scotland come together under the inspirational baton of James Lowe for a well-varied programme with Sibelius monumental Symphony No 1 at its core. More unusual is Bloch’s Schelomo with guest solo cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.
BBC SSO: THE SOUND OF HITCHCOCK City Halls, Sat 25 Jul, glasgowconcerthalls.com A celebration of Hitch’s composers, including Franz Waxman, Dmitri Tiomkin, Miklós Rózsa and Bernard Herrmann. Matthew Sweet presents, Timothy Brock conducts.
The Queen’s Hall, Sun 7 Jun, thequeenshall.net Scotland’s premier string quartet is joined by Glasgow Chamber Choir for a programme of music for voices and strings by Hans Gál.
SIMON NIEMINSKI: REQUEST RECITAL St Mary’s RC Cathedral, Tue 9 Jun, nieminski.com The cathedral organist plays a request recital.
ANSTRUTHER
CALIDORE STRING QUARTET Kilrenny Church, Thu 2 Jul, eastneukfestival.com Top US quartet plays works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven.
DUNFERMLINE
ONLY MEN ALOUD Carnegie Hall, Thu 18 Jun, onfife. com/venues/carnegie-hall The Welsh male voice choir who were the deserving winners of the BBC’s Last Choir Standing competition present a repertoire ranging from 17th-century works to 21st-century pop.
NATALIE CLEIN AND HÅVARD GIMSE Paxton House and Country Park, Sun 19 Jul, musicatpaxton.co.uk The great Natalie Clein (cello) in recital with Norwegian pianist Gimse play works by Debussy, Kurtag, Britten and Rachmaninov.
PERTH
PERTH PIANO SUNDAYS: ALASDAIR BEATSON Perth Concert Hall, Sun 28 Jun, horsecross.co.uk/perth-concert- hall One of Scotland’s finest pianists plays works by Schubert, Beethoven and Kurtág.
ST ANDREWS
EAST NEUK FESTIVAL FINALE Cambo Estate, Cambo House, Sun 5 Jul, eastneukfestival.com An open-air promenade concert featuring the world premiere of a specially commissioned work by one of the USA's best composers: ‘Across the Distance’ by John Luther Adams, featuring multiple horns sounding throughout the woodlands. See feature, page 34.
4 Jun–3 Sep 2015 THE LIST 91