The studio facility that is the Third Floor Arts Centre has always been an intimate venue and versatile enough to be arranged in several different ways. The stage can be used as a stage or as a raised section of seating if the performance is in the centre of the space and I've seen plays done facing the other way, too. It's rarely been as intimate as this, though, with four musicians surrounded by audience 'in the round' and the nearest one to me being, what, three yards away. None of the audience were much more than ten yards from their nearest musician. And they played in the opposite formation in the second half so that everybody got the reverse angle view.The baroque flute, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord line-up might lead one to expect the flute to be the principal instrument but it was by no means all about the flute. Bojan Cicic was a superb foil on violin and Reiko Ichise on viola da gamba was much more than a continuo player.
In fact, in the opening Telemann Paris Quartet no. 7, she was busier than anyone with me glad to be able to see her fingerwork from my vantage point. With 7 strings to reach across on a wide neck, it was hugely impressive work. The piece has the instruments in constant exchange of themes, its interplay both quite complex but light in tone and if this hadn't been bettered all night then I wouldn't have minded.
The C.P.E. Bach Trio Sonata Wq 14 was allegedly more aesthetically adventurous, 'striving towards irrationality'. It was perhaps not quite as flowing as the Telemann but I can't quite accept that Emmanuel was inventing Romanticism in some flagrant disregard of orderly virtue. Especially not when John Eliot Gardiner's book last year seemed to be trying to make a case for J.S. Bach to be a comparable rebel figure to Beethoven before the fact.
Each of the group took a turn in explaining their instrument and something about the music they were playing as they went along. Open, informative and informal, they are very likeable, as was the other piece in the first half, Leclair's Deuxieme Recreation, op.8, written by the famous French violin virtuoso of his day and with flourishes to prove it.
I was pleased to get my Messiah programme signed by James Bowman recently and equally glad that Reiko was kind enough to sign this week's for me in Japanese, which is the first Japanese autograph I've ever asked for. She was rapidly becoming a new favourite of mine.Terence Charlston appeared on his own to begin the second half, explaining both his harpsichord and something of Bach's Musical Offering. So first he played the Ricercar a 3 before being joined by the others for the Trio Sonata. In a programme that was virtually made exclusively of highlights, this had it all going on in all parts. One of Bach's most involved pieces, it is a labyrinthine excursion in astonishingly compact form. I had the Harnoncourt disc of it for Christmas which has perhaps seemed a bit academic to me so far but I can return to it with renewed enthusiasm having been so close to this performance.
But next was Marin Marais with the piece used in the film Tous les Matins du Monde, a big favourite and superbly delivered here with Bojan's violin and Reiko's viola da gamba joyfully playful and achingly expressive. This was not the earliest piece, written in 1723 - that was still to come, but we were provided with bookends of perhaps the greatest 25 years in the history of Western music, from this to The Musical Offering and an idea of how it developed. Just to label it all as 'baroque' doesn't seem to allow sufficient differentiation any more.
Rebel's Caracteres de la Danse was a quick-fire set of tunes. Each of these instruments had a marvellous tone throughout, whether entirely from their own innate qualities or the way they were played- and I strongly suspect the first depends on the second, but their clarity was never more evident than in the very, very vivace dances at the end.
It was a special concert and no surprise when the group decided an encore was justified by the enthusiastic reaction and it was an arrangement of a Scottish folk song by Francesco Barsanti, a flautist who came to Britain and died in 1770. No, I'd never heard of him either but I was glad he went to the trouble to jot this little number down.
Florilegium would appear to be flautist, Ashley Solomon's project if ownership has to be allocated but the great thing is how much it is not all about the flute but very much an ensemble with all four having starring roles. I adored them.
There are people in the office where I work who are thrilled to have tickets to see Kylie Minogue in the O2 later this year and good luck to them.
