Lammermuir Festival Preview
A Personal Preview of the Lammermuir Festival 2026
Tuesday 8th September – Sunday 20th September
It has been a great privilege over the last five or six years to be able to review many concerts in the Lammermuir Festival, the marvellous classical extravaganza that complements the Edinburgh Festival so well. Catering for the fine people of East Lothian and the cognoscenti of Edinburgh and beyond, this ambitious and intelligently curated festival is a beacon of light in a sector somewhat besieged by the Philistines of late. Its dual objective of highlighting wonderful churches and suchlike venues in East Lothian and providing world class performances has been met successfully over recent years, and its tightly run ship is extremely impressive. With its superb team of volunteer ushers and car parking attendants, it provides a stunning example of what can be done with limited resources, and it is clear that its artistic success over recent years has made it even more attractive to performers and managements.
It doesn’t try to be too ambitious. There’s no big auditorium or opera house in the area, and so it caters for works and groups of a decent size to perform in smaller venues. Chamber music, solo recitals, both vocal and instrumental, and early music specialists are standard but of the highest quality. My own speciality, as a largely retired singer, is for the vocal and early music sector, while colleagues are on hand to review more instrumental programmes.
I have been charmed and delighted over recent years by such as the Gesualdo 6, Fretwork, Véronique Gens (with whom I sang in ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ in Aix-en-Provence), the Marian Consort and Tenebrae, among others.
I am very pleased to see both the Marian Consort and Tenebrae this year, along with the excellent Binchois Consort. All their concerts will be highlights – the Marians with a fascinating programme showing the influence of Palestrina on Bach, Tenebrae with two concerts, one of English choral music of the 16th century, the other, on the theme of ‘Rest,’ examining a more contemporary repertoire, and the Binchois Consort delving into the fascinating music of Jacob Obrecht, the 15th century Flemish master.
Other highlights for me are Strauss’ Four Last Songs sung with piano accompaniment by the splendid Lucy Crowe, a concert of Britten and Pärt presented by Scottish Opera, Schubert’s Winterreise with Nicholas Mulroy and an English Winterreise with Roderick Williams, Janácek’s amazing ‘Diary of One who Disappeared’ with Joshua Ellicott and Jeremy Denk, who also plays Bach and Beethoven, and finally a first appearance at the Festival of the English Concert, with whom I sang on several world tours and two major Deutsche Grammophon recordings. The Concert is still acknowledged as perhaps the finest of all the early music ensembles and it will be a huge pleasure to hear them again.
On the instrumental side, look out for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, three appearances by Concerto Copenhagen and many other delights. Oh, and there is also the Lodestar Trio of Nordic folk instruments, and several concerts of string ensemble music.
You can find out about all these concerts and the full Lammermuir Festival Programme at lammermuirfestival.co.uk, with public bookings opening on the 29th May.
photo credit Sabrina Dallot-Seguro: The Lodestar Trio
