THE Amersham Festival’s Winter Concert series has a large, loyal and friendly following. Even so, I felt that this year’s programme seemed to be rather “much as before”, and this feeling was confirmed after the first half of last Friday’s concert.
It is difficult to criticise Bach’s 6th Brandenburg Concerto or Handel’s Concerto Grosso in A minor - acknowledged masterpieces as they are - and especially when played so well by the strings of the Amersham Festival Chamber Orchestra. True John Stanley’s Harpsichord Concerto in D minor is fairly routine, but when played so nimbly by Iain Ledingham - who was not only soloist but also continuo throughout the evening - there is little to carp over.
I mentioned this seeming “sameness” to a gentleman in the loo queue during the interval. He agreed. “You can have too much baroque”, he affirmed.
However we were both proved quite wrong, for the second half was a real “wake-up call”.
It began with some lively Purcell - the Rondo from Abdelazar (which “guides” young persons to this day) and from The Fairy Queen the marvellous Chaconne and a Minuet that produced, perhaps, the most charming tune of the evening. Included also was an extra item, perhaps to buck us up - the jolly final movement (Dargason-cum-Greensleeves) from Holst’s St Paul’s Suite And the concert ended with a scintillating performance of Bach’s 2-movement 3rd Brandenburg Concerto. As a bonus, the smiling faces of some of the soloists was quite infectious.
But in between was the revelation of the concert - the Harpsichord Concerto in B Minor by the blind John Stanley, a contemporary of Bach and Handel, and much admired by the latter. The whole piece was splendid, but the third movement with (to quote) its “extraordinary patchwork ... of seven sections” wove a tapestry that demanded a visit to Google to search for a CD.
Yes - it was as good as that.
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