Looking ahead: Music at Paxton 2017

Picture Gallery - Paxton House

Music at Paxton, the Summer music festival in Paxton House on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, this year runs from 14 – 23 July 2017. The daily concerts offer an intimate, friendly and relaxed experience and take place in Paxton House’s splendid Picture Gallery; with its large, domed roof-light and walls hung with paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, it makes an idyllic setting for chamber music. 

This year music for string quartet features heavily with appearances from the Elias Quartet in Sally Beamish, Schubert & Schumann's Piano Quintet (with Benjamin Frith), the Carducci Quartet in Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass & Ravel's Introduction and Allegro (performed with young Scottish musicians), and the Parisian group Quatuor Zaïde in Schubert & Debussy. As well as the picture gallery, this year there is a promenade concert in the house's main reception rooms, as well as two intimate recitals in the dining room. Afternoon events in a marquee provide a varied programme including folk-music.

There are recitals from pianist Steven Osborne, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, the Ilyria Consort (Bojan Cicic (violin), Susanne Heinrich (viola da gamba), Steven Devine (harpsichord) and David Miller (theorbo and guitar)), soprano Ruby Hughes and pianist Joseph Middleton, pianist Benjamin Frith, and cellist Peter Wispelwey. Young artists are a strong feature of the festival, and this year's Featured artists are the Sirocco Winds, Emma Wilkins (flute), Calum Robertson (clarinet), Marco Ramelli (guitar) and the traditional group Aonach Mòr.

Full details from the Music at Paxton website, tickets available from Hub Tickets.