A MUSICAL JOURNEY

St. Thomas’s Church, Salisbury

THE American tourist couple who sat in the pew next to me looked bemused. They had travelled far to soak up Salisbury’s culture and, by chance, found that St Thomas’s Church was hosting a Sunday afternoon concert by Salisbury Baroque.

None of us had heard Salisbury Baroque before and we did not know quite what to expect. Beneath the famous Doom painting, the first half featured a musical journey between London and Venice featuring orchestral and operatic snippets by Purcell, Byrd, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Boyce (featuring Matthew Dodd playing the bassoon) and Handel. Michael Solomon Williams’ clear and flexible lyric tenor voice delivered the songs and arias culminating in the rousing ‘La gloria in nobil alma’ from Handel’s Partenope.

The orchestra comprises amateurs and professionals and was led by Catherine Martin, whose musical experience with the Gabrieli Consort and the Salomon String Quartet kept the players on their toes and added a sparkling vivacity to the music.

Her virtuosity on the violin was demonstrated in the second half, when the most famous work of the ‘Red Priest’, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, was played. The interesting programme notes reminded us how evocative is his music, and by the Winter allegro non molto, we were shivering, despite the balmy autumnal weather.

The tourists left satisfied, smiling at the promise of heaven depicted in the Doom painting and remarking that Salisbury is indeed lucky to have such cultural richness. I heartily agreed with them and reminded myself that the word ‘amateur’ comes from the French for ‘love’. Salisbury Baroque’s members clearly love their music and communicated it with commendable passion and proficiency.

Haydn Ingram