Florilegium

King’s Hall, Ilkley

Part of Ilkley Concert Club season

December 11

The byways (and some highways) of the baroque are not really ‘my bag’, so it was with a certain sense of duty that I attended this concert. But I had a great evening out, as I’m sure did the rest of the audience judging by their reaction to this very varied menu of unfamiliar music, most of which had never been heard before in the King’s Hall. Performances of early music can suffer from a didactic po-faced approach, but not when the happy band Florilegium is in town. All star performers in their own right together they make an awesomely talented ensemble. They began with a Telemann Paris Quartet which show-cased Ashley Solomon’s deft flute playing, There is less French polish in the Handel Trio Sonata that followed, but both these works contain many brief movements, a problem for programming if a sense of short-windedness is to be avoided. The Marais Bells of St Genevieve dispelled this, an extended and obsessive workout for the bass viol that Reiko Ichise responded to feistily. The concluding Vivaldi concerto featured much lively interplay between the players, with violinist Jean Paterson’s joyous contribution especially noteworthy.

Much baroque music was written as background music and the Leclair suite that opened the second half may well be an example, delightful but despite the best efforts of the players it didn’t work for me in a formal concert setting. The Rebel Suite that followed was a revelation. A kind of musical switch, twelve movements skilfully interlinked with varied instrumentation and lasting under ten minutes, was captivating.

The concert ended with another Telemann Paris Quartet. This was far more interesting musically than the one we’d heard earlier, and it gave cellist Jennifer Morsches a chance to demonstrate her skill and expressivity. The final very tender chaconne was a surprise ending to a remarkable concert. A second surprise came with the cheeky encore in which harpsichordist Terence Charlston, who’d discreetly supported the players throughout the evening had the last word.

Geoffrey Kinder