Words cannot express the sheer pleasure to be had at East Neuk Festival (but please read on anyway!)
Words cannot express the sheer pleasure to be had at East Neuk Festival (but please read on anyway!)
Preview Winter is coming... so I invite you to look ahead to next Summer and the 13th East Neuk Festival. We’ll officially be entering our teenage years so we aim to misbehave a little by trying out one or two new things. Full details will be released at the end of January (and booking opens progressively on 13th February), but for now, I want to leave you with a flavour of some highlights we have in store for you. Schubertiad: The decade between 1816 and 1826 is our focus, years in which the boy genius grew to manhood. We follow his astounding progress through song, piano and chamber music in the company of Elisabeth Leonskaja, Belcea Quartet, Malcolm Martineau and Thomas Oliemans. Julian Bliss in Residence: Versatile, virtuosic and full of vitality, Julian Bliss shows three very different sides to the clarinet in Mozart’s Quintet with the Castalian Quartet, Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint and a swinging night of Latin jazz with his Septet. The Retreat: Now in its third year, The Retreat invites outstanding young musicians to spend a week in the East Neuk experiencing an intensive, inspiring encounter with some of the world’s
top musicians. They have told us that it was “the most precious experience I could ever ask for!” and “one of the most special and best musical experiences I’ve had”. ENF audiences get to share in all that in two Retreat concerts that have already become a thrilling annual highlight. This year the repertoire includes music by Mozart and Dvořák. Sean Shibe: Soft and Loud. The superb guitarist returns to ENF for two programmes: Soft is acoustic and built around the music of Bach and Fife’s own James Oswald; Loud sees Sean pick up the electric guitar for music by Steve Reich and Julia Wolfe, among others. New Faces: This year’s ENF debuts include the magnificent Spanish oboist Cristina Gómez Godoy, the award winning, young Castalian Quartet, and the wonderful baritone Thomas Oliemans. These are just some of our classical music events, with plenty more details to come in January – more jazz, talks, world music, Nordic journeys in music, and an ambitious new venture we’re very excited about even though we can’t yet agree what to call it... Svend McEwan-Brown
Weds 28 June RETREAT 1 4pm, Elie Church Hall
MOZART QUINTET 7.30pm, Crail Church
An hour of music making with the young musicians of The Retreat – repertoire announced from the stage!
Julian Bliss, clarinet Castalian Quartet Ravel: Quartet Adès: Four Quartets Mozart: Clarinet Quintet
Thur 29 June SALIERI & MOZART 1 11.30am, Cellardyke Church SCO Wind Octet Wind arrangements from the operas of Mozart and Salieri. Schubert: Octet D72 / 72a SOFT 4pm, St Monans Church Sean Shibe, guitar In one of the most peaceful locations we know, Shibe’s ‘Soft’ programme juxtaposes two contemporaries: Fife’s own James Oswald and J S Bach.
NEW Office Address:
Weirgate House Weirgate Brae St Boswells TD6 OBD
Fri 30 June
Sat 1 July
SALIERI & MOZART 2 11.30am, Kilrenny Church
SCHUBERTIAD 3 11.30am, Crail Church
Cristina Gómez Godoy, oboe Castalian Quartet
Schubert: Quartet in G, D887
Salieri: Concertino for Oboe & Strings Schubert: String Quartet, D353 Mozart: Oboe Quartet
SCHUBERTIAD 1 7.30pm, Crail Church
RETREAT 2 4pm, Kilrenny Church
Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano
The amazing young artists of The Retreat perform Mozart’s Quintet in D, K593 and Dvořák’s Sextet in A.
Schubert: Sonata in E, D459 Schubert: ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, D760 Schubert: Sonata in A, D845 One of the greatest living Schubertians, Leonskaja frames the virtuosic tour de force that is the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy with youthful and mature piano sonatas.
SCHUBERTIAD 2 7.30pm, Crail Church Thomas Oliemans, baritone Malcolm Martineau, piano Belcea Quartet In the first half we offer a selection of lieder from Schubert’s astounding golden years of 1815-16 and then follow them with Belcea Quartet performing his ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet.
New Phone:
0330 2211093 ian@eastneukfestival.com
www.eastneukfestival.com
Belcea Quartet
SCHUBERTIAD 4 4pm, Crail Church Thomas Oliemans, baritone Malcolm Martineau, piano Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin SCHUBERTIAD 5 7.30pm, Crail Church Elisabeth Leonskaja Belcea Quartet Schubert: Sonata, D784 Schubert: ‘Trout’ Quintet, D667
Sun 2 July JOURNEYS NORTH AND SOUTH 5pm, Venue TBA SCO Strings Stephanie Gonley, director Travel North in the company of the SCO Strings for music by such as Grieg, Sibelius and Nielsen, then turn South to close ENF 2017 with Tchaikovsky’s exhilarating Souvenir de Florence.
What the audience said about 2016 “One of the best festivals in the world” “I love the informality of ENF and the very high standard of performance and the effort to support young classical musicians - keep it up!” “The Retreat concert was pure magic” “It’s an amazing festival” “Altogether a truly special experience” “First time & so impressed. Will come to more next year.” “We plan to attend for longer next year. It is better planned and organised than other festivals we go to that have bigger budgets. Well done.”