A very interesting concert, this. We had heard a fair amount of music by JS Bach’s many composer/descendents, but I don’t think we’d heard any music by his forebears before.
In some ways, it felt more like a lesson than a concert. The programme notes are/were fascinating. A summary note is available on page 9 of the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM’s) season’s brochure – click here – that includes the programme for the evening too. (Also scraped to here in extremis).
In truth, this isn’t the most wonderful music we have ever heard; it is of its (mostly early to mid) baroque period. Unexceptional, other than the fact that it must have been an influence on JS Bach and all that followed.
But the AAM folk did their best to keep the concert lively and engaging. Richard Egarr is an engaging master of ceremonies, Pavlo Beznosiuk always looks as though he is about to wink at the audience and even William Carter smiled a bit during the riper anecdotes of introduction.
I especially like the AAM’s own blog piece – click here, which shows them to be a far more human, fun-loving lot than their somewhat scholastic veneer sometimes infers. However, there is a reference to a “mysterious punter” in the AAM blog piece which could be no-one other than our very own Daisy. Click here or the picture below to find out more.
