Baroque Ad Hoc do it for the joy of playing as well as giving the pleasure of listening which are the two purposes of this kind of ensemble sonata and good for them.Three recorders, one of them often John Kitcher's diligent and riveting bass - the interest is not always in the top line and we mustn't mistake it for a bassoon- and the cute hapsichord pictured, combine with great delight and, further to my recent points about 'impersonality', it matters little whether it's Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti or arrangements of Handel opera by one of his contemporaries because their first piece was an anonymous Sonata in F Major. Which didn't detract from it one bit because even if some of like to think we can differentiate Bach, Handel and Vivaldi asnd assume it's Telemann if we don't think it's one of the first three, there is precious little biographical detail in these saloon entertainments and so it's difficult to see why it should concern us unduly.
I have a disc of Telemann recorder music and so am aware that an hour is enough but it's nice, light and nimble while it lasts, of course, and Gil and Portia exchanged themes, overlapped and interplayed to great effect with Gordon directing from his charming keyboard. They were ready with a deserved encore, fittingly maritime in the Cathedral of the Sea, some variations on Portsmouth.
It's been a fine couple of weeks away from working covering five lunchtime concerts from the Wigmore to Chichester and Portsmouith cathedrals. It's fair to say no item was more warmly received than Ad Hoc's jolly rejoinder.
