SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010 (2) - Bach for Breakfast: Royal Overseas League and Bach to the Future: The Jazz Bar, Chambers Street, 16.8.2010 (SRT)

Inspired by last weekend’s Bach Day at the Proms I set out to explore what the Fringe has to offer on the great man, though I didn’t get quite what I bargained for. What is it about Bach that makes his music so universal, not just in terms of how widely loved it is but in the way it seems to speak to all of us wherever we are? Perhaps it’s the essential “rightness” of the instrumental music – how could those chords resolve in any other way? – or the sheer human and spiritual warmth of the vocal works. Either way he seems to be more popular now than ever: there is plenty of Bach on offer on the Fringe, be it organ recitals, sacred cantatas, the B Minor Mass or even the cello suites arranged for a viola.

In the midst of all these riches Bach to the Future was rather flat and didn’t at all live up to the expectations of its name (whatever those might have been). The only snippet of Bach offered was a prelude played as a curtain-raiser, and the pianist admitted that he only played that because they had played no Bach whatsoever last week! Instead we got 5 young (untrained, to my ear) singers giving excerpts from Cosi fan Tutte and various song cycles. Nothing wrong with this, but why market it under this name? The group, Muzikworx, advertise the show as classical music demystified, but this consisted of some fairly pedestrian explanations before each excerpt. The singers themselves were fairly mediocre (as I said, they were all young and untrained) and only baritone Alex Ashworth stood out with a distinguished Don Alfonso and some worthy insights into RVW’s Songs of Travel.

A much longer established Fringe tradition is the ROSL Arts concerts put on at their splendid venue at 100 Princes Street. The young musicians who appear in these concerts are all ROSL Arts Prizewinners or Commonwealth Scholars so you are fairly sure of some quality. The series has become very popular and features concerts spread out across the day: Chopin After Lunch, Brahms at Teatime… Refreshments are also included after each concert. With Bach for Breakfast, I caught the very first concert of the season featuring recorder player Jill Kemp and pianist Aleksander Szram. Kemp’s playing is a universe away from any nasty memories you may have of learning this instrument at school. Her virtuoso quick-fire fingerwork was breathtaking in places, but what impressed me most was the way she could summon up such tranquillity and peace in the slower introductions to each sonata. Yes, Bach can still speak to us as a still centre in the midst of a busy world, and there are few places busier than Edinburgh in August. I can think of few more pleasant ways to begin a festival day than this.

Simon Thompson

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