Skip to content

Baroque Alchemy

One might imagine that the pairing of a powerful and technically sophisticated instrument such as the synthesiser with one which is essentially a tube of wood with holes in it would be something of a mismatch, but Baroque Alchemy proved how well it can work.

Recorder maestro Piers Adams and his keyboard partner Lyndy Mayle’s reviews suggested we could be in for a performance which would be not only innovative, but perhaps outlandish, fusing the baroque with more modern elements like rock and jazz. As it turned out, their music, while always exhilarating, was never jarring, with some of Lyndy’s improvisation was deliberately intended to evoke the sort of soothing music played while being pampered in a luxury spa salon.

There was never a hint of a struggle between electronics and the recorder and Mayle’s playing was always sympathetic, often in the style of that essentially baroque instrument, the harpsichord. That is not to say it lacked innovation. In Suite Fantastique – a collection of pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries – the synthesiser at one point became the rhythm section of a modern jazz trio and later produced a pounding bassline taken from a Fleetwood Mac Rumours album track which became the theme tune for the BBC’s Formula One coverage.

But it was Piers Adams who inevitably held the attention. Behind him was a rack of recorders of various shapes and sizes, which he switched between, sometimes in mid-tune and almost, it seemed, in mid-note. The speed of the playing was breathtaking, but the incredibly extravagant ornamentation never compromised the clarity of the notes – a tribute to the way he controlled his own breath. The speed was particularly evident in the Albeniz favourite Asturias, which appears in almost every classical guitarist’s repertoire. It demands some fast playing on the guitar, but here the recorder was producing three notes
to the guitarist’s one. In this piece, the synthesiser brought out its essential Spanish feel to good effect.

The evening was rounded off with the theme and a selection of eight variations from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. This was originally commissioned for a clavier player, Goldberg, to play outside Count Kaiserling’s bedchamber, who suffered from terrible insomnia. The Count asked Bach to compose pieces ‘which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless night’. Each variation was humorously riffed by Piers and Lyndy to suggest what might have been in Bach’s mind – from references to ganga, to a tango and even a nod to fairground merry-go-round music – each surprise bringing smiles and chuckles from the audience.

The packed audience in the Cavendish Hall, swelled by a number of the duo’s regular followers, was generous in its applause. Any teachers struggling to motivate their pupils during recorder lessons should try and take them to a Baroque Alchemy concert.

Categorized: Uncategorized