2005

27th May – Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra

London’s Royal Academy of Music is host to some of the most talented young music students in the world - and it shows. The Royal Academy Baroque Orchestra has become a firm annual favourite at the Tilford Bach Festival, attracting a full house in the Great Hall of Farnham Castle.

This year their programme was richly varied, opening with the concerto in A minor for two violins by Vivaldi, played with great spirit and energy by Eleanor Harrison and Claire Macfarlane. J.S.Bach’s trio sonata for two flutes and cello continuo featured Soile Pylkkonen and Gabriel Poynton with cellist Natasha Kraemer. Unusually, Gabriel was one of only two males in the ensemble. The other was Christopher Field whose fine counter tenor voice will soon become familiar to lovers of baroque music. He sang the Bach aria Komm, du süsse Todesstunde – Come sweet death. This aria is accompanied by two recorders and a chorale originally written for full organ, but played very effectively by Eleanor Harrison in a transcription for violin. The 18th century composer, Johann Heinechen, is not a well-known name but his Concerto à 8 is a brilliant piece with parts for four recorders and four strings, actually played by the five members of the string section. The recorder players, Inga Klaucke, Oonagh Lee, Roselyn Maynard and Kathryn Corrigan played with great virtuosity on instruments too easily associated with children and squeaks.

Christopher Field sang Esurientes from the Bach Magnificat, an aria Christopher described as poking fun at the rich! He was accompanied by Laurence Cummings, who produced a most unusual damped pizzicato effect on the harpsichord. The concert closed with Bach’s triple violin concerto in D major played by Eleanor and Claire, with Leonor de Lera whose father had flown over from Spain especially for the evening. The concert was dedicated to the memory of the Society’s Secretary for many years, the late Helen Malyon.

Peter Wisbey

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3rd June – Adrian Butterfield , Rachel Brown&
London Handel Orchestra

A concert of chamber music by Antonio Vivaldi, JS Bach and CPE Bach is a mouth-watering prospect for lovers of baroque music. If added ingredients include outstandingly talented soloists such as Rachel Brown on the flute and recorder plus Adrian Butterfield on the violin supported by members of the London Handel Orchestra, and if everyone is equipped with authentic period instruments, many music lovers are likely to feel that they have died and gone to heaven.

The third concert of this year’s festival, held in All Saints’ Church, Tilford, lived up to all the promise it offered and the enthusiasm of the audience was unrestrained at the close at this event. Vivaldi was the dominant composer of the evening and two of the concertos from The Seasons were greatly appreciated. The only anomaly was that the audience listened to Spring and Summer whilst the temperature outside plunged to the level of Winter.

Rachel Brown is an extremely accomplished flautist with a long list of musical achievements, most notably being the winner of the 1984 American National Flute Competition. It is always a delight to hear her playing in our local festival and her versatility was manifested when she played the Vivaldi Concerto for Soranino Recorder in C. Other pieces included flute concertos by JS Bach and CPE Bach, both played on a period wooden flute that gave a special mellow quality to the sound.

The other sparkling items in this concert, performed with great gusto and skill by all the musicians, were four Vivaldi Violin Concertos with Adrian Butterfield as soloist and orchestra director. His virtuosity on the period instrument is now widely acclaimed and in great demand in this country and abroad. The TBS audience rank among his greatest admirers and so this was a concert that delighted everyone.

Ian Sargeant

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4th June – Adrian Butterfield

With a line-up of internationally acclaimed soloists the final concert was eagerly awaited and it certainly proved a fitting climax to a wonderful festival. This all-Bach programme opened with a breathtaking performance of the Violin Concerto in A major by Adrian Butterfield and the London Handel Orchestra. The lyrical slow movement was exquisite, with beautifully controlled sustained notes and subtle dynamics in a touching dialogue between violin and cello, played by popular Tilford veteran Katherine Sharman. The Gigue finale is Bach at his most skittish, enabling Adrian Butterfield to display his amazing dexterity on the baroque violin to the full.

Two vocal works comprised the rest of the programme. Canadian soprano Gillian Keith, winner of the Katherine Ferrier Award in 2000, flew in from Munich for the occasion. Alto Daniel Taylor has gained an international reputation for his performances in Baroque opera, and both Peter Harvey (baritone) and Charles Daniels (bass) are highly acclaimed performers of oratorio.

“Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam” is one of Bach’s most dramatic cantatas and explores the full meaning of Christian baptism. The soloists’ voices blended well in the opening and closing choruses, the combined power of their voices balancing with the full orchestral accompaniment and their individual expressive talents well demonstrated in the arias and recitatives.

Bach’s Lutheran Mass in A major was an excellent choice to end the festival. Particularly memorable were the Gloria with its alternating sections of brilliant energy and quiet lyricism, and the pensive soprano aria “Qui tollis peccata mundi” with its gentle flute duet accompaniment. “Cum Sancto Spirito” brought the concert to a triumphant end with full orchestra and all four soloists combining in a glorious paean of praise.

Rosemary Wisbey

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17^th December – Carol Concert at All Saints

“Each year we say it can’t get any better, and each year it does!” This was a comment overheard from someone who had just enjoyed the Tilford Bach Society’s annual celebration of Carols by Candlelight in All Saints’ Parish Church, Tilford. And this year there were several factors that might have led to that enjoyment. As always, the choir carols chosen and arranged by Laurence Cummings and sung by the young voices of the London Handel Singers aptly complemented the readings which for 2005 reflected Christmas in Farnham. For the 3pm occasion we were delighted to be joined by children from Waverley Abbey and All Saints’ C of E Infant Schools. Waverley Abbey choir performed three pieces from a work by Mark and Helen Johnson called Peace Child. It left you feeling you wanted to hear the entire composition. Step forward the seemingly very small pupils from All Saints’ who played a piece for percussion called Shepherd’s Dance, and sang “Let all the People Rejoice”. Laurence Cummings in his role at the Royal Academy of Music is always looking out for talented young musicians. I wonder if the young chap wielding cymbals almost as big as himself might be one of those. In All Saints’ final song he was in on the beat almost without fail and, much to everyone’s relief, managed to avoid decapitating himself and nearby members of the choir; a star in the making!

At the evening event we heard readings about Christmas in Farnham, compiled with the assistance of the Museum of Farnham, which ranged from the 17th century to the present day. The last reading was a contribution written especially for this year’s TBS celebration by John Greasley and was a moving story of the birth of a baby boy with Downs Syndrome, which in the space of about 300 words took the listeners from grief to happiness that produced many a glistening eye. And when the choir followed with “For unto us a boy is born” from Handel’s Messiah handkerchiefs were much in evidence. In between all this there was the opportunity for a good sing of the traditional hymns of Christmas. Yes, I can see why the lady thinks it gets better every year!

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A Christmas Birth by John Greasely

"Tilford 784..."

"John?...John!...Di's had it!...It's a boy'...It's a boy!"

It's my son-in-law Mark. I swallow.

"It was... fantastic....You still there John?"

"Of course, of course I am Mark." I manage eventually. "That's...that's... marvellous... marvellous news... And Di, she all right?"

"Fine, but exhausted."

"Well that boy hasn't been in any hurry arriving... And he's OK. I take it? "

"He looks super, though -”

There's the slightest of pauses that most wouldn't have noticed,

" - it seems he's Downs Syndrome."

"There are degrees of that." I hear myself saying immediately, "We'll wait and see. I'll be straight over - if that's all right?"

"I'm sure she'd like nothing better."

A freezing Christmas Eve, yet my back is damp and I'm shaking and vomiting.

But I drive on through the darkness...up past The Green lost in the blackness...past the warm glow of The Duke of Cambridge... and on towards The Royal County in Guildford. To what I wonder?

Could Di, perhaps, be feeling embittered and seeking someone to blame?

She lies still, eyes closed, and fair hair in disarray on the pillow.

An arm is outstretched.

"Dad..."

We cling to each other.

I sense sorrow and fear. Sadness for the pain my family is suffering and afraid I won't be able to handle it properly.

Di's voice comes through.

"It's...it's so sad."

"Things'll work out - you see." I mumble.

"No...no...they can't..."

I hold my breath.

"Jane there..." she goes on, nodding towards the bed in the corner, with a curtain around it, "We've just heard...her baby has died....Oh Dad...aren't we lucky!"

No words come for a moment.

"Yes we are sweetheart. And now, where is this little chap Ian?,..Can I see him?"

"Of course you can - Grandpa!"

I stare down at the tiny soft bundle and feel proud, very proud, of all of them.

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10th February 2006 – Rachel Brown & Laurence Cummings

JS Bach spent a lot of time composing music. He also spent a lot of time just drawing lines on sheets of paper creating the music staves into which he then wrote his compositions. When he had written one particular concerto, he was left with three spare staves of music at the bottom of each page. Not wanting to waste this scarce resource, he composed his Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord in A. Some time later a person, perhaps Bach himself, took scissors and cut out these bars of music from certain pages leaving an incomplete first movement and the work is therefore rarely performed.

However,at this members’ evening concert held at Farnham Castle, the Tilford Bach Society listened with rapture to the complete work. The internationally acclaimed flutist, Rachel Brown, has composed music to fill the missing 47-bar section seamlessly and she delighted a large audience at in her performance of this work.

But this was just one of many musical items in a fascinating concert that quite captivated the TBS. Rachel Brown, with Laurence Cummings on the harpsichord, delivered a sequence of interesting pieces ranging from Quantz (famous in his day as flutist and composer in the court of Frederick the Great) to Couperin, Handel, Telemann and Bach. Vignettes of historical background on each piece were offered to an appreciative audience.

Rachel Brown’s recorder playing of the final piece, a Telemann sonata, was quite stunning, giving the impression of two separate instruments being played at the same time. Laurence Cummings, as one of the country’s leading baroque performers, both complemented the flutist to perfection throughout and delivered his own virtuoso sections with consummate ease.

Both of these artistes are, of course, well known to our society, but their appearance together at a Farnham Castle evening was a premier event. If the sentiment of the audience is a gauge, this should not be the last such occasion.

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