Lammermuir 26: Opening Concert
St Mary’s Kirk Haddington 8/9/26
Royal Northern Sinfonia Jeremy Denk (piano) Maria Włoszczowska (director and leader)
Since its foundation in 2010, the Lammermuir Festival has been providing world class music in venues throughout East Lothian for a couple of weeks in early September, and this opening concert of the 2026 Festival got things underway in the best possible manner. The irrepressible American pianist, Jeremy Denk, played two early Mozart piano concertos, accompanied by the Royal Northern Sinfonia, with a lovely wind sextet by Leoš Janáček in the middle.
St Mary’s Kirk in Haddington was packed out with an audience buzzing in anticipation, and the sight of the whole orchestra, except for cellos and basses, standing at their music stands was a thrilling experience, and they didn’t disappoint. With the charismatic leader/director, Maria Włoszczowska, dominating the ensemble with her inspired playing and the superb Jeremy Denk at the piano (without lid for maximum sound quality), Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 9 in E flat Major K 271 got this year’s festival off to a flying start. Written in Salzburg by the 21 year old composer, almost certainly for a precocious young pianist, Victoire Jenamy, daughter of a friend of Mozart’s, it is the first full expression of his maturing style, and a marvellous work, full of verve, imagination and joie de vivre. Right from the beginning, Mozart surprises us by introducing the piano in the second bar, and the invention and audacity continue apace. The interaction between soloist and orchestra is delicious, and one could see clearly the close connection between leader and pianist from the start. It was also marvellous to see the fun the players were having, moving about at their places, using eye contact, and reacting to the expressive style of Ms Włoszczowska. I have sometimes doubted the wisdom of getting orchestras to play standing, but this was a brilliant vindication of the ploy, involving the audience much more directly in the playing of the whole band.
The C Minor Andantino, the slow movement, was a revelation, as Mr Denk’s expressive playing was mirrored by the muted strings in revealing a depth of emotion never before seen in Mozart’s oeuvre. The Rondo finale was an exuberant rounding off, interrupted briefly by a minuet recalling earlier styles, before rushing headlong to a triumphant conclusion. The audience was delighted!
After the interval, a wind sextet was seated in a semi-circle underneath the crossing – Helen Wilson (flute and piccolo), Ewan Millar (oboe), Peter Francomb (French horn), Will Kidner (bassoon), Cristina Mateo (clarinet) and Jessica Lee (bass clarinet) - for Janáček’s late masterpiece, Mládí (Youth). In this piece, the composer, at the age of 70, clearly was searching for some suggestions of his own youth. He wrote it just after the premiere of his opera, ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ in 1924, a piece where youth and nostalgia for the past vie for predominance, and the Sextet opens right in the middle of the sound world of ‘Vixen’. Some years ago, I sang the role of the Priest in a lovely production of ‘Vixen’ at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, and that sound world came flooding back in this piece. At the age of 70 now myself, I can appreciate the yearning for the past that was paramount in the composer’s mind at the time. The six note theme relating to the phrase ‘Mládí, zlaté Mládí’ (Youth, golden Youth) recurs frequently, and in the third movement, Janáček uses a recently composed fragment, 'March of the Blue Boys', a reminiscence of his time as a blue-cassocked choirboy, making great use of the sweet tones of the piccolo. The Finale starts more sombrely, but erupts into a joyous conclusion.
The piano returned for the last piece in the programme, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 14 in E Flat Major K449, and the standing players (upper strings, 2 oboes and 2 horns) backed up the exquisite playing of Jeremy Denk once again. This time, the piano only appears after about 2 minutes of an orchestral introduction, and proceeds to act as a sort of role player in an instrumental opera, with singing, cantabile melodies catching the ear. The slow movement, again an Andantino, allows the soloist a free rein to develop and elaborate the main melody, and Maria Włoszczowska was wonderful to watch as she led and cajoled the Northern Sinfonia in their accompaniment. Jeremy Denk’s expressive playing was captivating, especially in the finale, with cascades of notes pouring forth, and when, in a brilliant tour de force, Mozart reconfigures the theme into triple time, both pianist and orchestra romp towards the finishing line with magnificent bravado.
A fantastic start to this year’s Lammermuir Festival!
