BrEMF – Handel in the Wind – Red Priest
There were spectacular musical fireworks in All Saints’ Church on All Saints’ Day, but not just stratospheric high notes and giddily fast passagework. It was a straightforward, perfectly researched, well-structured concert but the ornamentation, the delicacy and the speed were exceptional, the atmosphere electric. Handel’s beautiful line was sustained even when Piers Adams was changing recorders, anything from booming bass to tiny sopranino, in the space of a breath. The arrangements of ‘Messiah’ were exquisite, witty and phenomenally virtuoso, for all the instruments.
These folk can really animate the Baroque repertoire, enough even to thrill Handel, that great Saxon showman.
All Saints Church, 1 November 2013
Rating:
Andrew Connal
I was sitting at the rear of this huge church and by the time the music reached me it was a blur and impossible to seperate one instrument from another. I don’t blame Red Priest for this but the choice of venue was a mistake. Like several others, I went home at interval feeling very disappointed.
The music was wonderful but unfortunately the venue was not. Sitting at the back I overhead a lot of comments with three main points.
You could not hear very well. The venue has poor acoustics and this kind of chamber music needs something more intimate.
You could not see. The musicians were at the same level as the audience and were more or less invisible. One person commented that they could just as well have listened to a CD.
The lighting was harsh and much, much too bright. It was quite unpleasant.
These comments are not intended to be negative but to hope that next year these points can be improved.