For five days each June the little villages on the east coast of Fife host a remarkable musical celebration. This is the East Neuk Festival, and it’s remarkable because for two decades it has attracted some of the world’s top chamber musicians to play in a rural corner of Scotland that otherwise has little high-quality music-making.
Among the ensembles that return year after year are the Pavel Haas Quartet — four Czech string players who play with a fervour and riskiness that is all the more spine-shivering when encountered up close in a smallish venue such as Kilrenny Church. They headlined an all-Czech programme that included Suk’s Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn, which they played first like a veiled echo of ancient polyphony and
