BREMF – The Woods so Wild – Piers Adams (recorder) & David Wright (harpsichord)

Brighton Early Music Festival opened magnificently with a fantastical flourish of musical extravagances. Beginning with a number quite brilliant enough to end a normal concert, these two virtuosi casually increased the bravado, the complexity, the enchantment, to leave us gasping. Trilling wildfowl, rustling woodlands, raucous hunting scenes were conjured up sometimes with thrilling speed, shrill or lightly delicate, sometimes with a pace so slow as almost to break the line. Indeed, the relaxed presentation and easy manner conceals their exceptional skill and musicality. I never before thought to hear recorders playing chords, mimicking a violin’s double-stopping. I was completely astonished!

St Barnabas’ Church, Hove, 29 October 2016

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