Virtuoso Scottish pianist at Melrose

On March 11, in Melrose Parish Church Hall, Alasdair Beatson will give a varied programme of music from Beethoven to Bartok in the Melrose Music Society's final concert of the season.
Alasdair Beatson, pianist, Melrose Parish Church Hall.Alasdair Beatson, pianist, Melrose Parish Church Hall.
Alasdair Beatson, pianist, Melrose Parish Church Hall.

Alasdair grew up in a musical family in Perth and has been described as the finest pianist to come out of Scotland since Steven Osborne. Trained in Aberdeen and London, where he later taught at the Royal College of Music, he received the Dewar Arts Award in 2007.

He has toured with the Scottish Chamber Ensemble as well as performing solo at the Wigmore Hall and with chamber groups across the country. Festival appearances have taken him to Aldeburgh, Bath, Belgium, Delft and Switzerland. He is artistic director of the chamber music festival, Musique à Marsac. The Scotsman, 2011, described a performance by Alasdair as “mesmerising”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The programme opens with Beethoven’s early 7 Bagatelles, Opus 33, followed by pieces from Bartok’s Mikrokosmos and Debussy’s Images, Book 2. With a reputation for his masterly interpretation of Schumann, he continues the concert with the composer’s Kinderszenen, Opus 15. Schumann will be followed by Eric Satie’s bizarrely entitled ‘Embryos Desséchés’. Rather than ‘dried embryos’, the three jokey short pieces are inspired by crustaceans. The concert concludes with Dohnányi’s lively Rhapsody in C Major, Opus 11.

Concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets at the door £12.

Related topics: