MUSIC in Peebles has been enjoying a record-breaking season, with membership at an all-time high and audiences at the concerts also at record levels.

To bring such a season to a close demands a very special event, and that is exactly what is planned for the Eastgate Theatre on Tuesday, April 22.

At 7.30pm, the final concert of the season is a piano recital by the distinguished Spanish pianist Maria Garzon, and before that, at 6.30pm, there will be a screening of a fascinating documentary film featuring Maria, telling the story behind one of the pieces she will play (entry to the film is included in the concert ticket price).

Maria had a truly international education, studying in Spain, then at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Universities of Lübeck and Cologne before moving to London. Her performance schedule has been even more extensive, taking her across Europe and the USA to venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Athenaeum in Madrid and Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London.

For her programme, Maria has chosen an intriguing mix of music from her native Spain and pieces by two Czech composers in whom she has special research interests. There is also a rarity, in the form of Elgar’s piano version of his famous ‘Enigma’ Variations, of which Maria was commissioned by the Elgar Society to make the first recording.

The Spanish strand to the concert takes in two sonatas by the 18th century composer Antonio Soler, two of the ‘Four Spanish Pieces’ by Manuel de Falla, and the ‘Prelude to the morning cockerel’, a hair-raisingly difficult piece by Joaquin Rodrigo, composer of the famous guitar concerto.

Jan Ladislav Dussek was a Czech contemporary of Mozart who was much admired as a pianist and composer, but who later fell into obscurity. Maria has written about him and recorded all 29 of his piano sonatas, one of which she will play in this concert.

Viktor Ullmann was a pupil of Schoenberg and was among the most promising composers of his generation, first in Vienna and then in Prague. In September 1942, he was transported to the Theresienstadt camp, where he continued to compose and organise concerts for two years. Among his final works was his seventh piano sonata, an astonishing work with which Maria ends her concert. On 18 October 1944, a few weeks after completing the sonata, Ullmann was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

The film ‘Viktor Ullmann – Biography of a Recording’, tells the story behind his piano sonatas and Maria Garzon’s recent landmark recorded cycle. Appearing in the film is the remarkable pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest Holocaust survivor, who played Ullmann’s music in Theresienstadt. She died in London in February at the age of 110.

As with all Music in Peebles concerts, everyone is welcome. Tickets are available at £13 (£6 if accompanying a child under 12) from the Eastgate box office (01721 725777) or online at www.eastgatearts.com. Entry is free for all school students and Music in Peebles members.