Ton Koopman’s enthusiasm for the bread and butter of his lengthy profession – for the music of JS Bach, and for enjoying it with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, which he based in 1979 – hasn’t light. This all-Bach programme learn like a best hits tracklist, but the music sounded unflaggingly recent.
It started with the Double Concerto for oboe and violin in C minor, with Catherine Manson stretching out some supple violin strains and the oboist Marcel Ponseele sounding candy within the quicker music, a bit blunter within the gradual motion. Koopman directed from his seat on the harpsichord. The ensemble sound was wealthy and resonant on this living-room acoustic, weightier than some, an impression bolstered by the way in which Koopman at occasions formed the phrases into huge, full-bodied crescendos that swelled after which subsided.
Photograph: Richard Cannon/Wigmore Corridor
The Air on the G String – once more, thickly woven however with element within the articulation that permit the daylight in – launched the 8pm nationwide minute of silence. Then the temper relaxed once more with the Brandenburg Concerto No 3 – relaxed a lot that by the ultimate motion Koopman gave the impression to be having a good time, having fun with the massive rattling crescendos Bach creates and, within the remaining minute, throwing in a glissando of which Jerry Lee Lewis would have been proud. The ABO had fielded solely two cellists, which left the third cello half – which balances three violins and three violas – to be absorbed by the opposite two, an odd nook to chop. It labored effectively sufficient however barely skewed the steadiness – and would in all probability have completely triggered Bach, who cherished symmetry, an excellent numerical puzzle and the quantity three.
The jubilant temper continued by the Orchestral Suite No 1 in C, the music dance-like however brisk: good luck to anybody in an 18th-century corset and periwig attempting to bounce elegantly to the Bourrée as performed right here. A barely gentler power infused the Brandenburg Concerto No 4, spotlighting some purposeful virtuosity from the 2 recorder gamers and a few impossibly quick violin breaks from Manson. The night ended with an encore of that joyful, tearaway Bourrée, and Koopman appeared delighted with all of it.
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