Music review: Nicola Benedetti & Academy of Ancient Music, Queen's Hall
Nicola Benedetti & Academy of Ancient Music, Queen’s Hall (****)
More interesting, perhaps, was Benedetti following the AAM lead by playing on gut strings with Baroque bow. It signalled a sense of genuine team work. I’ve often admired her natural ability as a chamber musician, aside from her solo virtuoso persona, and this series of beautifully integrated performances, where virtuosity simply emerged like impromptu outbursts of self-expression, bore that infectious glow of team spirit.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe Vivaldi concertos – including the A major harpsichord one with Egarr as director/soloist – were typically inoffensive, bright and breezy, with a monstrously entertaining cadenza in the D major RV208.
More musically outré were those quirky inventions of Telemann – the impression of Frogs in the A major concerto and the brazenly extreme discordant adventures in the Rameau-esque “Alster” Overture and Suite.
The phalanx of four natural horns in the latter were typically temperamental. Benedetti, as ever, was a sure bet.