With lots of talk about music festivals opening up again, the emphasis so far has been on the big players, whether Reading, the BBC Proms or Scotland's TRNSMT. Much more intimately celebrating the return to live, in-person music, but with no fewer than 37 events to choose from across eight different venues, is East Lothian's Lammermuir Festival, which is back proudly bearing the strapline it continues to live up to: Beautiful Music in Beautiful Places.

'Yes, we're doing it, and we're live,' says James Waters, who is one of the festival's two artistic directors. 'We came to the conclusion that people will either want to return to live events or not and if they do, then we might as well do it properly. Of course, in planning the festival, we had to make some assumptions about what things would look like in September.' In allowing for social distancing, small ensembles are in venues which are bigger than their usual settings and this year will need to be a miss for the 100 members of the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the full BBC Symphony Orchestra. 'We worked it out at two metre and one metre distancing, all depending on what Nicola [Sturgeon] said … ' Waters explains.

Other unusual considerations have been ventilation in a 15th century church. 'Very draughty' was the conclusion. In programming, Waters and his co-director, Hugh Macdonald, had to take a pragmatic view in what might be possible for international visiting artists. Artist-in-residence, American pianist Jeremy Denk, gives four concerts of Bach. 'He's astonishing,' says Waters, 'really interesting. He wanted to come and is allowed to. We're also continuing our successful track record in backing young Scottish talent, with accordionist Ryan Corbett, who is unbelievably virtuosic. It's also a really special festival for choral music this year with Tenebrae, Gesualdo Six and Marian Consort.' Among highlights of the beautiful places in which the concerts take place are Crichton Collegiate Church, Garvald Village Hall and the almost 700-years-old St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington.

Lammermuir Festival, Tuesday 7 – Monday 20 September, lammermuirfestival.co.uk.