Festival Music
Academy of Ancient Music
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
five stars
WHEN violinist Nicola Benedetti joined the RSNO for its dates in Florida last year, it was straight from a US tour with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and a transition for the soloist that you might liken to a tennis player switching between grass and hard court tournaments. While other parts of the world have heard Scotland’s best known classical musician playing in partnership with a baroque ensemble, it is something she seems to have done less of at home and while it would be incorrect to describe her partnership with conductor and harpsichordist Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music as a revelation, it certainly produced some of the most exquisite playing I have heard from her.
From the first movement cadenza in Vivaldi’s “Grosso mogul” Concerto in D Major, which opened the recital, it was apparent that this partnership was something very special. Benedetti always appears happy when she is performing, but it was immediately apparent that enthusiasm was shared by the smiles across the platform, continued as she navigated the long solo passages of the slow movement.
The works chosen helped the mood of the occasion as well. Vivaldi alternated with Georg Philipp Telemann, his Concerto “The Frogs” playing with croaking dissonance in a musical gag that spans three centuries in an instant. Even more pictorial was his Alster Ouverture-Suite, with its parody of a band of village musicians and lovely lullaby in the name of Pan.
His Concerto for Four Violins is exactly, and quite briefly, that, on which Benedetti was joined by AAM leader Bojan Cicic and seconds Madeleine Easton and Rebecca Livermore. Egarr produced lovely tonal range from the period keyboard on Vivaldi’s sole harpsichord concerto, and the concluding Vivaldi work, like the larger Telemann piece, added winds and horns to the strings and continuo line-up. Cellist Joseph Crouch was on superb form in the latter role, and the staccato articulation of the players on the natural horns was also absolutely top drawer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here