A colourful programme celebrating musical links between cultures, whether in the rhapsodic Third Violin Sonata by Enescu and its Romanian folk roots, or Beethoven’s monumental “Kreutzer” Sonata, which inspired Janáček’s string quartet.

Max Baillie and Alasdair Beatson’s programme Incantations traces a web of creative links between composers whose voices are shaped by movement across artistic and geographical borders. From the folk-inflected modernism of Martinů to the rhapsodic, almost dreamlike incantations of Enescu’s Third Violin Sonata, each work reflects a dialogue between inherited tradition and personal expression. In the case of Beethoven’s monumental “Kreutzer” Sonata, it became the seed for both Tolstoy’s novella and, later, Janáček’s First String Quartet.

Boulanger and Kurtág offer their own intimate perspectives on musical identity: Kurtág, filtered through his intensely compressed, aphoristic style that emphasises the stark beauty of small musical gestures, contrasts with the gorgeous Nocturne by Lili Boulanger – a perfect vignette traversing the worlds of late French Romanticism and early modernism.

This event will last approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including an interval.

About Max Baillie

From soloist and leader-director to chamber musician, programme curator and improviser, Max Baillie has carved a reputation as a uniquely creative musician. He has worked with artists from across the musical spectrum, including Steve Reich, Mischa Maisky, Björk, John Williams, Abel Selaocoe, Thomas Adès, Bobby McFerrin, Zakir Hussain, Max Richter, Anoushka Shankar, James Thierrée and Jacob Collier, among many others.

His group Lodestar Trio, with its distinctive Scandinavian folk interpretations of Bach and other Baroque music, and ZRI, a quintet inspired by the Viennese Red Hedgehog Tavern where Brahms and Schubert heard Gypsy musicians play, have appeared across Europe.

Max was mentored by the legendary violinist Ivry Gitlis and is a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School. He runs a concert series in his hometown of St Leonards-on-Sea, where he collaborates with many of his friends, including Laura van der Heijden, Fred Thomas, Alice Zawadzki, Héloïse Werner and Guy Johnston, among many others. He also plays the mandolin and was awarded first-class honours in Political Philosophy at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Reviews

‘gutsy’ The Times
‘fearless’ The Guardian

About Alasdair Beatson

Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson is renowned as a sincere musician and intrepid programmer. A prolific chamber musician, Alasdair’s colleagues include Steven Isserlis, Alexi Kenney, Viktoria Mullova, Pieter Wispelwey, the Doric, Gringolts and Meta4 String Quartets, and the Nash Ensemble.

Recent recordings include works by Beethoven and Schubert for violin and fortepiano with Viktoria Mullova, and a solo piano recital, Aus Wien, on Pentatone. Performances during 2025 include regular appearances at Wigmore Hall, appearances as concerto soloist at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, and festival engagements including Bath Mozartfest, the Cumnock Tryst, Musikdorf Ernen, Festivalta, IMS Prussia Cove, Lewes Chamber Music, Resonances, and Yellow Barn. Alasdair is Artistic Director of the chamber music festival at Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.

Reviews

‘artistry Incarnate’ The Times
‘highly sensitive playing of rare insight’ Classic FM Magazine