Amazing Bach family come to life
At Home with the Bach Family - Artworks Concert, Blackthorpe Barn
The concert title invites the audience not just to listen to music, but imagine spending time with this most unusually gifted family.
Succeeding generations of Bachs excelled musically – even though there were a very few who didn't take it up – and their family get-togethers must have been remarkable. The party would jump off with a hymn or two, and then they would get down to the serious business of singing, playing and entertaining themselves for hours on end.
This sympathetically-constructed programme followed some major Bach life events. Judith Russell read imaginative descriptions of the challenging circumstances they faced just to make a living.
Musicians were not always valued, and Johann Sebastian had to move his growing family several times to follow where the work was offered. He gave his second wife Magdalena, a singer, wonderful notebooks from which the musical offerings were chosen. Their children all had their own clavichords to practise on – fortunately for the neighbours, clavichords are relatively quiet keyboard instruments.
Lindsay Gowers' strong soprano solos included cantata extracts and arias. Another voice, perhaps a tenor, would have lent additional colour and support. Elizabeth Page set a lively pace on the recorder, particularly with the Telemann composition which the Bachs would undoubtedly have known. Although Malcolm Russell's rather solemn accompaniment needed a touch more Baroque sparkle, his explanations of the keyboard instruments were informative.
All this amidst the rural splendours of Blackthorpe Barn. The visual stimulus of the second Artworks exhibition surrounded the listeners. Helen Dougall's landscapes, Graham Portlock's vibrant photos and the ironic urban themes in Roger Gamble's acrylic paintings reminded us that creativity is confined neither to the past nor to music. The Artworks combination of modern art and classical music, in exceptional surroundings, has succeeded again.
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Weather for Sudbury
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
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Sunny spells
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