SCOTTISH pianist Alasdair Beatson will open Music at Paxton this summer.

The international chamber music festival, takes place in Paxton House on the banks of the River Tweed from July 18 to 27.

The concerts offer an intimate, friendly and relaxed experience and take place in the Paxton House’s splendid Picture Gallery.

With its large, domed, roof-light that lets in the summer sun and walls hung high with paintings from the National Gallery of Scotland’s collection it is an idyllic setting for chamber music.

An 18th century neo-Palladian mansion, audiences can take in more of Paxton House enjoying afternoon tea, an early-evening supper, a stroll and a picnic in the grounds or a pre-concert drink in the courtyard. House tours can also be arranged.

To open the 2014 Festival programme an audience favourite, Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson, returns with two leading chamber music contemporaries, Adrian Brendel (cello) and Katharine Gowers (violin).

With a programme designed by Alasdair Beatson, they will perform over the first two days: Friday, July 18 at 7.30pm and Saturday, July 19 at 5pm and 7.30pm, a mix of duets and trios by Elgar, Kodaly, Ravel and Fauré, as well as Schumann’s showpiece for piano solo, Carnaval. Adrian Brendel and Alasdair Beatson introduce the Russian thread in this year’s festival with Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata.

Katharine Gowers plays Janacek’s Violin Sonata, and together they will perform Dvorak’s Dumky Trio.

For 2014, Music at Paxton adds an extra element to the programme - O’Duo feature as Paxton’s first percussionists. Oliver Cox and Owen Gunnell will lead, with the energy and zing they are most known for, a series of family workshops as O’Duo.

These will take place at The Maltings in Berwick Upon Tweed, culminating in an outdoor (weather permitting) family event at Paxton House on Sunday, July 20 at 3.30pm.

Their impressive and energetic performance talents will be on display in their recital on Wednesday, July 23 at 7.30pm with a programme which is bound to surprise and delight.

The Edinburgh Quartet return with their new line up to perform in the middle of the Festival, at 7.30pm on Thursday, July 24. They appear with the virtuosic Maximiliano Martin, principal clarinet of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, in Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet.

The Russian programme thread continues with Shostakovich’s haunting String Quartet No.8 in C min. This performance comes hot on the heels of the Edinburgh Quartet’s new CD featuring Shostakovich and Haydn, released on 10 March 2014.

The Scottish Ensemble also make a welcome return with an emotionally charged programme of sextets by Richard Strauss, Boccherini and Puccini, bringing the Festival to a close with Tchaikovsky’s wonderfully evocative Souvenir de Florence. Music at Paxton has proudly supported exceptional young musicians since its inception, working closely with Live Music Now. Live Music Now Scotland celebrates its 30th birthday this year and Music at Paxton presents its Double Bill on Tuesday, July 22 at 7.30pm with the Astrid String Quartet, Fraser Langton (clarinet) and Juliette Philogene (piano).

The concert features Live Music Now’s birthday commission by Alasdair Nicolson. From the most northerly Scottish festival to the most southerly, the Astrid String Quartet will have only just performed the World première at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney.

The Live Music Now Scotland artists, Pure Brass and their virtuosic antics return again on Sunday, July 27 for a family concert in the grounds celebrating with their humourous brass musical pyrotechnics.

This year has an abundance of exceptional young and international talent. The Chiaroscuro Quartet, formed in 2005 and representing Russia, Sweden, Spain and France in their nationalities, will perform on Sunday, July 20 at 6pm. They are led by Alina Ibragimova, who has also regularly appeared at Music at Paxton in recital.

The Quartet return to bring the first weekend to a close with a classical programme of Mozart and Haydn, performed on original instruments.

An artist making his Paxton debut and who is making his mark on the international stage is the award-winning Italian pianist, Alessandro Taverna. Taverna continues the Russian thread in a solo programme including four of Rachmaninov’s Preludes and the monumental Trois mouvements de 'Petrouchka’ by Stravinsky.

These will be performed alongside Beethoven’s Eroica Variations and Venezia e Napoli by Liszt, at 7.30pm on Friday, July 25.

Mahan Esfahani, originally from Tehran, is internationally renowned for his harpsichord playing. He has a strong association with Bach and in January 2014 released his recording of C.P.E. Bach’s Wurttemberg Sonatas to wide critical acclaim.

For Music at Paxton, Esfahani has compiled a Baroque double bill, entitled 'The Bach Family at Home’, which he will introduce with a pre-concert talk at 4pm.

In the first concert he is joined by the much sought-after Baroque violinist Bojan Čičić, for a programme of Sonatas and Partitas by J.S.Bach; the second is an intimate programme - perfect for the atmosphere of Paxton’s Picture Gallery - in which he is joined by Čičić, virtuoso Viola da Gamba player Susanne Heinrich and the ever popular baritone William Berger. These performances are at 5.00pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, July 26.

For the second year running, in conjunction with Live Music Now and Paxton House, we will see the return of the extremely successful one-hour taster concerts under the banner of 'Music at Paxton…Plus’ starting at 2.30pm, on Sunday, May 18 and Sunday, June 15. These are free of charge and the performers are Duende (Yvonne Paterson, flute and Andrew Robinson, guitar) and Olga Jegunova, piano, respectively. You can make an afternoon of it with Sunday lunch beforehand.

To book tickets call 01314732000 or log on to www.hubtickets.co.uk, priority booking from Monday 14 April, and general booking from Monday, April 28.