2007
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There was a full house for the Emma Kirkby
concert on 1st June
The 2007 Tilford Bach Festival was another outstanding series of events. Four
quite different concerts performed by musicians of the highest order, of
international standing.
In addition to the four
professional concerts, there was another music workshop for local singers,
under the direction of Laurence Cummings, culminating in a Choral Evensong in
All Saints Church on 26th May assisted by The Oboe Band who added greatly to
the effectiveness of the music. It is a pity that this event does not attract a
greater number of singers.
Here are reports of the four
main concerts.
The
Tilford Bach Society has always offered a platform to encourage talented young
musicians, so the now traditional appearance of the Royal Academy of Music
Baroque Orchestra at the first night of the Tilford Bach Festival is a great
pleasure. The RAM trains some of the finest students from around the world so
we could be listening to an Emma Kirkby of the future. And, sure enough, the
soprano soloist, Anna Huntley, might just be such a person. She has the most
appealing voice with tone and breath control that promises well for her future.
In the first half she sang an aria from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, which tells a gruesome story of decapitation and
revenge. She brought the concert to a fitting end with two arias by J.S.Bach;
one that mourns the death of the Queen of
Rachel Baldock is a doctoral
student at the RAM and she demonstrated fine musicianship and skill playing a Bach Sonata for Oboe and Harpsichord,
and Scarlatti’s Concerto for
Recorder.
And in between the solos the
orchestra introduced us to the music of Heinrich Biber with several movements
from his Mensa Sonora, literally
music to be played by a group of friends sitting around a table. Our thanks to
Laurence Cummings and his students for allowing us to join with them in this
charming chamber experience.
Pete
Wisbey
A
delightful bonus for this year’s festival was a recital by Rachel Brown
and Adrian Butterfield. It takes
great musicianship to hold an audience spellbound for an entire evening with
just two solo unaccompanied instruments, but these two internationally renowned
artists certainly accomplished this.
Rachel
Brown played Teleman’s Twelve
Fantasies for Solo Flute, designed to demonstrate the possibilities of an
instrument very different from its modern equivalent. Rachel’s flute is a specially made
replica of an early 18th century German instrument found in Durham
Cathedral. Made of grenadine wood
with bands of ivory it has just one metal key. On this baroque instrument every key has
its own characteristic mood, many of which were explored by the composer in
movements ranging from bubbling energetic dances to lyrical and contemplative
pieces. Hearing the instrument
unaccompanied enabled the audience to appreciate fully the beautiful tone of
this instrument and its extraordinary expressive qualities in the hands of such
an outstanding musician.
Adrian
Butterfield played violin works by Biber and Bach on a baroque instrument. Biber’s Passagalia for Solo Violin is a series of variations based on four
descending notes, becoming increasingly elaborate and technically demanding,
reflecting the fact that the composer was himself an accomplished
violinist. However, the Partita No.2 in D minor by J.S. Bach
took us to a different level and formed a fitting climax to the evening. Written when the composer was grieving
over the death of his first wife, this is a work of passion and great beauty,
performed by
Rosemary
Wisbey
Audience expectations at
a concert that sells out three weeks before the date are going to be very high.
All Saints’ Church, Tilford was packed on 1st June and there was a great
buzz amongst an audience of music-lovers, many of whom had travelled a
considerable distance.
Although the Tilford Bach
Festival always attracts big audiences, an added attraction this year was the
presence, for the second time, of Emma Kirkby, one of the world’s
greatest sopranos, considered to be at her very best singing baroque music.
With the London Handel Players and Rachel Brown, the internationally acclaimed
flutist, the concert promised to be a memorable musical event for everyone. No
one was disappointed – everyone was captivated! And this included the man
who founded the festival in 1953, Denys Darlow.
Emma
Kirkby has one of the purest voices we will ever hear, perfectly suited for
baroque and early music. Rachel Brown is a baroque flutist with great
versatility. The programme, assembled by Adrian Butterfield, one of the TBS
music directors, was cleverly conceived to display all these talents.
The opening item was
Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in F
minor BWV 1056, with the TBS’s other music director Laurence Cummings
delivering an outstanding performance at the keyboard.
Two pieces on the theme of birds
followed, featuring the duo of Emma Kirkby and Rachel Brown supported by the
orchestra. Handel’s “Sweet
Bird” from L’Allegro uses poetry by
The first part of the concert
concluded with Bach’s Concerto for
Three Violins BWV 1064, re-created by Oliver Webber (who was playing the
second violin part) from a harpsichord version of the piece, the original
having been lost. In addition to the interaction between the three violins, a
highlight of this piece was a virtuoso harpsichord section in the third
movement delivered with great ease by Laurence Cummings.
The
second half of the evening maintained the momentum of the first with a
performance of Gluck’s Dance of the
Blessed Spirits and a Vivaldi Violin Concerto. The final item was the Bach
Cantata Non sa che sia dolore BWV209,
sung with perfection by Emma Kirkby to the delight of the audience.
Thunderous applause required an
encore and the audience was therefore treated to the performance of a piece by
John Christopher Smith that is in the course of being revived. This brought
Rachel Brown together again with Emma Kirkby for the combination of pure sounds
which represent the enduring memory of a musically historic event for this
fortunate audience.
Ian Sargeant
To listen to Bach’s
glorious Mass in B minor is always a
moving experience, but in a packed village church it is overwhelming. The London Handel Orchestra was
augmented by rousing baroque trumpets, horn and timpani under the inspirational
direction of Laurence Cummings. To
see him simultaneously conducting and playing continuo standing at the
portative organ is an experience in itself.
Pegasus Chamber Choir made a
welcome return visit after their triumphant performance of the Nelson Mass two
years ago. Once more this
London-based choir impressed by their precision, power and sensitivity in the
dramatic switches of mood this Mass demands. When they burst into the Gloria in excelsis Deo it was as if the
church roof had opened to admit the sound of the heavenly host itself.
The soloists were Ana-Maria
Rincon (soprano), Alexandra Gibson (contralto),
Daniel Auchincloss (tenor) and George Humphries (bass). Each vocal aria is really a duet with
its accompanying instrument, the beautiful voices exquisitely complemented by
the distinctive timbre of baroque oboe, flute, violin or cello. It is difficult to select particular
moments from such a uniformly inspiring performance, but the switch from the
exuberant chorus Osanna in excelsis
to the heart-rending alto aria, Agnus Dei
(Lamb of God, have mercy upon us) was
especially moving. After the
closing chorus, Dona nobis pacem (Grant
us peace), there was a long moment of profound silence before rapturous
applause burst from an audience that felt privileged to be part of such a great
event.
Rosemary
Wisbey
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