Continuum, Chichester Cathedrral, Sept 19th
Continuum, in an ever-changing programme of groupings, offered two rarely heard composers alongside Bach, Handel and Corelli in a generous lunchtime helping of sonatas.
Michel Blavet (1700-1768) was a new name to me with his delicate, airy flute music and then Sebastian Comberti impressed on the cello, with a particularly smooth cantabile Adagio in his Op. 1, No.1, by Stephen Paxton (1734-1787) which was available on CD and had to be snapped up.
The group returned to a three-piece for Corelli's La Follia for recorder, cello and harpsichord, Elizabeth Walker nimble and dextrous in her fingering on the unforgiving instrument and finishing with a flourish.
Bach's erudite meanderings in the French Suite no.4 were delivered by Michael Overbury with its all-too-brief pizzicato section gorgeous on the instrument.
Morven Brown then joined to make a four-piece for Handel's Sonata in G minor with some fine interplay between two flutes for which a front row seat was a great advantage.
Continuum maintain the high standards of Chichester's lunchtime concerts which are always a pleasure and worth the trip and now I am grateful for three other Stephen Paxton works for cello to take further. One is happy to still be learning something new every day.
David Green
- David Green (Books) is the imprint under which I publish booklets of my own poems, or did. The 'Collected Poems' are now available as a pdf. The website is now what it has become. It keeps me out of more trouble than it gets me into. I hope you find at least some of it worthwhile.
