Review of Make or Break 2 Nov 2019
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
Despite going to every rehearsal and really enjoying the repertoire, when I was felled by a throat lurgie it was clear that I would be unable to sing in the latest Bath Camerata concert, Make or Break at the Wiltshire Music Centre. Instead I took the opportunity to sit back and listen from a less soprano-centric position.
Make or Break was a collaborative concert with Wild Plum Arts and its Artistic Director Lucy Schaufer, and Huw Watkins, pianist and composer. At its centre was the mission to champion new music and to challenge the audience by presenting a diverse range of repertoire from Bach to 21st century composers to folk-revivalist on the theme of Creation and Destruction.
The beginning of the concert had an ethereal quality to it with a piece by Cecilia McDowall, but at no point could the audience settle into complacency as each piece was so totally different from the last, just as one got used to a certain sound world we were bounced into another.
Huw Watkins is an outstanding pianist equally at home playing a Bach prelude and fugue as performing contemporary repertoire and the choir performed his composition The Phoenix and the Turtle.
It was the first time I had heard Lucy sing live and it was an exciting and visceral experience. Her presence and communication was exciting, every word and emotion meant that the audience were spell-bound.
And what of Bath Camerata and Benjamin Goodson? It is hard to be totally objective but it was such a pleasure to listen and enjoy their performance. Camerata has come such a long way under Ben’s direction. Tuning, balance and articulation were excellent and they were able to switch seamlessly from the verve and energy of The Creation chorus to the intensity and control of Stravinsky’s The Dove. A particular highlight was Nicholas Maw’s One Foot in Eden Here I Stand. The solo quartet was excellent, interweaving with the rest of the group.
At the end, Lucy and Camerata performed an arrangement of the rock ballad For Nothing arranged for the evening by Simon Carrington. It was a successful culmination of a wonderful concert, I had a tear in my eye!
Alicia, soprano
