The final evening of the Cranleigh Concert Series was the return visit of Tim Uglow’s period instrument group, Nuove Musiche. The name of the band seemed apt for the way in which the performances made the listeners in the Chapel on 18th June bring new ears to even so familiar a piece as ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi’s famous op 8 concertos.

 

The all-Vivaldi first half of this cleverly devised programme began with Graham O’Sullivan as soloist in the ‘Gardellino’ concerto for transverse flute and the use of solo strings not only helped with the balancing of this soft-voiced solo woodwind but also allowed details such as the duet passage with viola in the first movement to emerge clearly. The slow movement was tastefully decorated with ornamentation: another bonus for the spontaneity of a live concert.

 

In the motet ‘Nulla in Mundo Pax’ soprano Alison Hill sang with the purity one imagines Vivaldi heard from the girls at the Ospedale della Pièta in Venice where he was the ‘Maestro’. It was refreshing to hear this ‘pure tone’ as Sir Roger Norrington calls it, matching the instrumental playing and eschewing the trowel-laid vibrato of singers more used to a later style of music. It was noticeable also, in the second aria, how much more expressive the strings were for avoiding the constant vibrato which players on metal strings tend to employ.  We could also watch them listening to one another, communicating through gesture and smiles, with director Tim Uglow giving free rein to their musicality, not forcing them into a mould. In their rugby reports my colleagues sometimes refer to ‘mazy runs’ and this phrase came to mind in the final ‘Alleluia’ where the twists and turns of Alison Hill’s singing were truly athletic as well as musically tasteful: even the high note avoided vulgarity.

Next came something for the largo louts: the famous aria to a plane tree from ‘Serse’ (‘Xerxes’) by Handel.  Bass Tom Faulkner brought light and shade to the song and which benefited especially from the harpsichord being tuned to ‘Werckmeister III’ temperament; the subtleties of this were explained in the programme.

 

I have not seen a score of Bach’s ‘Coffe Cantata’ (composed for the Café Zimmerman) but have always imagined that the marking ‘espressivo’ must feature somewhere, despite the rambunctious nature of much of the piece. Perhaps it appears in Lieschen’s first aria, where we were again treated to the soft and subtle tones of the flautist. It was a good idea with this entertaining and comic cantata to sing it in English translation but I was struck by how even in this lighter mode, there seems a deeply satisfying architectural inevitability to Bach’s music. Singers Alison Hall and Tom Faulkner were joined by tenor Tom Lyle (UVI) who blended well with the older voices and used his wide-ranging and flexible voice to great effect in the opening narration. It was good to see some of Tom’s friends in the audience but sad to count just eight pupils in total who took advantage of having world-class musicians in a free concert down their corridor; most year groups had exams the next day, but some LVI might have attended, one would have thought. Those of us lucky enough to be able to attend were certainly rewarded and it was wonderful, as usual with these concerts, to welcome guests from the village and further afield.

 

PJL