Event listing

Ensemble Hesperi

To celebrate the immortal memory of Robert Burns, Ensemble Hesperi presents a programme of Scottish eighteenth-century music from their debut CD with EM Records. Throughout the eighteenth century, Scottish music and musicians travelled far and wide, and by Burns’ day, there was a real craze for Scots songs and reeling across Scotland and England. Londoners were always first in the queue for the latest Scottish music, and the first printed collection of Scots Tunes, which incorporated the tag-line “Full of the Highland Humours”, was published in London rather than Scotland.

This Burns Night, Hesperi celebrates the success that Scottish music enjoyed beyond Scottish borders, spurred on by several “expat” Scottish composers who lived and thrived there. Highlights include include floral “Airs for the Seasons” and a Sonata on Scots Tunes by James Oswald, who also compiled a “Caledonian Pocket Companion”, later owned and much admired by Robert Burns; a sonata by the eccentric Scottish aristocrat and fiddler, Thomas Erskine, sixth Earl of Kellie, and raucous variations on Scots tunes by Scottish composer and publisher Robert Bremner.

In collaboration with the Kellaway Concert Series at St Catharine’s

Concert duration: 60 minutes without interval