Concerts in the West

Musicians of London Wall

Bridport Arts Centre, The Hub, Lyme Regis

The Musicians of London Wall are fine, young musicians who were, in most cases, visiting the West Country for the first time. More importantly, they were swapping hectic London lives to be looked after locally by generous hosts.

The name Musicians of London Wall refers to their connection with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. They are all early music specialists who are sought after as performers by festivals around the world. Three of them are involved in continuing research projects.

Under the headline ‘The Old Virtuosity Shop’, their programme of baroque music ranged from great and influential composers – Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann and Corelli – to lesser known figures such as Barrière, and Mancini whose slow movements of his D minor Sonata revealed a deep melancholy. But the recurrent theme was one of virtuosity, exemplified by Biber’s Sonata in A.

Emily Baines, recorder (replaced by Oonagh Lee on the final day), Ivana ?etkovi?, baroque violin, Alexis Bennett, baroque violin and viola, Kate Conway, baroque cello and Katie De La Matter, harpsichord, each shone in solos as well as trios and quartets: Telemann’s Quadro in G minor made a powerful impact in its agility as well as its sadness. Explanatory introductions were enlightening, and far from dryly academic, especially from Alexis whose witty connections with the present day were sometimes outrageous, that is if you were sufficiently alert to catch them.

The Musicians of London Wall brought each concert to a close with their own adaptation of Corelli’s famous variations on a much utilised old Portuguese folk tune, ‘La Folia’. Corrina Connor in her excellent programme notes even offers comparison between Corelli’s musical shapes ‘immediate, full of movement, [with] light and shade’, and a painting by Caravaggio.

ANTHONY PITHER