2008

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There was a full house for St Matthew Passion 7th June

The 2008 Tilford Bach Festival was an inspiring programme of concerts played to capacity audiences. In featured outstanding musicians performing much-loved music in wonderful locations. The intimacy of this music festival, which attracts music-lovers from far afield as well the locality, was enhanced by pleasant summer weather.

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There is something special about a string quartet - four strands of music crafted with genius by the composer and played by four individual virtuoso players all coming together as a magnificent whole.

And so it was when Adrian Butterfield and his quartet, the Revolutionary Drawing Room, opened the 56th Tilford Bach Festival in the Great Hall of Farnham Castle. The RDR, Adrian Butterfield and Jean Paterson, violins, Rachel Stott, viola and Ruth Alford, cello made a last minute decision to reverse the programme order of the two Haydn quartets in the first half. Adrian said the opus 74 C major quartet is a very “public” piece.

Haydn was apparently surprised that London audiences were quiet when listening to his music. This work starts with a very loud attack, which would grab the attention of any audience, and such is the required skill of performance that you have the urge to applaud after every movement. The second quartet opus 20 in F minor he considered to be more private and reserved. The final movement, fuga a 2 soggetti (two themes), reflected back to the baroque style from which the classical mode had emerged including a passing reference to Handel’s Messiah.

The final piece was Mendelssohn’s quartet opus 12 in E flat major. Mendelssohn was a child prodigy and Adrian felt this early work combined a depth of feeling with teenage angst, something the performers tried to remember from their own teenage years! The second movement heralded the spirit of the Mendelssohn yet to come with a hint of midsummer night dreams. The final movement , molto allegro e vivace, was one of those moments with four fine musicians in full flight, when you wished they wouldn’t stop.

And why Revolutionary Drawing Room? The name refers to the revolutionary years in Europe between 1789 and 1848, the "drawing room" being the place where chamber music was performed in Victorian times.

Pete Wisbey

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“How do you manage to get a star of this magnitude?” was one of the questions being asked by a visiting music-lover in All Saints Church, Tilford on 6 June. The countertenor Daniel Taylor is, aged 39, one of the most illustrious singers in the world, soaring to great heights in his recently acclaimed performances and recordings of baroque opera and other works.

TBS regulars knew this was an outstanding performer when they heard him sing alto in the Bach Lutheran Mass at the 53rd Festival. This, the second concert of the 56th Festival, even exceeded their expectations.

Rachel Brown (flute and recorder) and Adrian Butterfield (baroque violin) were also star soloists for this event and the orchestra comprised the ever-welcome London Handel Players.

The first part opened delightfully with Telemann’s Overture for Flute and Strings in E Minor. Daniel Taylor’s first appearance was the famous aria Dove sei? from Handel’s Rodelinda. In contrast to this mournful song was another aria from the same opera, Un zeffiro, a song of intrigue and plotting. The Leclair Violin Concerto no. 4 in F major concluded the first part, with Adrian Butterfield dazzling the audience with some virtuoso playing.

The opening item of the second half was a superb performance of the Sammartini Recorder Concerto in F major. Rachel Brown excels on this instrument and the combination of her playing and the orchestra made this item quite enchanting.

Daniel Taylor made his return to end the concert with two more Handel arias from Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare, which he wittily described to the audience, warning them that he would deliberately change into his baritone voice in certain parts (this to avoid a misunderstanding that had once occurred when someone had reported that he seemed to have suffered some “vocal distress”!).

Every aspect of this concert was memorable and perfect, including good weather which allowed the audience to go outside in the interval to enjoy their wine or champagne.

Ian Sargeant

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The climax of this year’s festival was a deeply moving and highly dramatic performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Pegasus Chamber Choir made a welcome return with The London Handel Orchestra and an impressive array of soloists. To watch director Laurence Cummings stand at the organ simultaneously playing the continuo and enthusiastically conducting this large-scale and complex work is a memorable experience in itself. His reputation as an internationally acclaimed conductor of opera was evident in the emotional range he elicited from the performers: a truly terrifying ‘lightning and thunder’ chorus at an almost superhuman pace followed by the most graphic orchestral representation of the ‘bottomless pit’ I have ever heard.

Countertenor Daniel Taylor followed his triumphant performance of the previous evening by singing the contralto arias with great sensitivity and beauty, especially Have mercy, Lord, on me with exquisite violin accompaniment from Adrian Butterfield. His voice blended well with the rich, bright tones of Irish soprano Anna Devin in the lyrical duet So has my Jesus now been taken!

George Humphreys was an authoritative and expressive Christus, the agony in the garden being a particularly moving episode. Of tenor Nicholas Mulroy veteran concert-goers were heard to remark, ‘The best Evangelist I’ve ever heard’. His dramatic range was astounding, from a spine-chilling whisper for Judas’s kiss to Peter’s anguish when the cock crows.

Besides these two demanding roles the male soloists also sang arias, each accompanied by a different section of the orchestra. Particularly memorable was the lyrical I would beside my Lord be watching, accompanied by two obi d’amore.

The emotional and musical climax of the work is Surely this was the Son of God, a sublime swell of sound from the choir and full orchestra. The closing chorus was followed by a moment of silence and a short prayer, after which thunderous applause broke out.

Rosemary Wisbey

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More pictures from the Festival

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