Abstract
Performed on violin for this concert, as part of the launch of the exhibition Dalkeith Palace: A Passion for Music, 8 June – 3 September 2023.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Live recording of the launch event for the summer 2023 exhibition, "Dalkeith Palace - A Passion for Music." Filmed in the Gallery at Dalkeith Palace, 17 June 2023.In the late eighteenth century, animated by Scottish Enlightenment ideals, Dalkeith Palace played a crucial role in the thriving musical culture that enlivened Edinburgh and the region. Henry and Elizabeth, 3rd Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, were avid musicians and musical patrons. Their children studied with the best instructors, and they welcomed celebrated performers to their household: from the educational innovator Anne Young to the star soprano Angelica Catalani, from the violin virtuoso George Pinto to the famous dance band directors and Scottish music advocates Niel and Nathaniel Gow. Ignatius Sancho, the first composer of African descent to publish his music in Britain, was a family employee, and the Buccleuchs were principal backers for several generations of the Italian Corri family – composers, singers, players, publishers and instrument dealers who were central to Edinburgh’s musical life.
This concert takes Domenico Corri’s The Singer’s Preceptor – among the most influential vocal treatises of the period, dedicated to the Duchess – as springboard for a concert in four lessons, mixing Italian arias, Scottish and English song with dances by Sancho and the Gows and harp music by Domenico’s daughter Sophia Corri Dussek.
Mhairi Lawson, soprano
Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, soprano
Lu Ren, mezzo
Jean Kelly, harp
David McGuinness, piano
Aaron McGregor, violin
Concert and launch event produced by Jeanice Brooks (University of Southampton) and Mhairi Lawson (Guildhall School of Music and Drama) in collaboration with Wiebke Thormählen (Royal Northern College of Music) and Dalkeith Palace & Country Park.
The concert and exhibition are a result of the research project ‘Music, Home, and Heritage: Sounding the Domestic in Georgian Britain,’ funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain.
Square piano by Thomas Preston, c. 1820, kindly loaned by Professor Francesca Bray
Harp by Sébastien Erard, 1815, kindly loaned by the Hospitalfields Trust
Piano tuning and expertise by John Raymond
Video by Thirdman Productions.