The Art of Moog
21st-century hyper-Bach on synthesizers
Sun 3 Nov, St Martin’s Church.
Robin Bigwood, Martin Perkins, Steven Devine keyboards
Annabel Knight wind synthesizer
Looking more like a Kraftwerk gig than a classical concert this event brought Bach’s eternal music to a seriously diverse Brighton audience. The band is made up of some of the UK’s best harpsichordists and baroque specialists who bring their combined skill and imagination to this thrilling re-colouring of Bach’s masterpieces.
It was a superb evening, a melange of sublime interpretations which shouldn’t have worked at all, but was more than the sum of their parts. Fine musicians with an understanding of the music, who are practiced in the subtle arts of the baroque and early music performances unleashed on the most up to date technological musical instruments with a touch of retro synth thrown in giving us their all. Wrapped up in a well-balanced ambience of the high ethereal vaults of St Martins Church and some rather funky LED lighting washing the place in colour.
Full details of the music in the performance can be seen here
If computers could dream of sheep safely grazing and sing to each other of the diode electric then this is surely what they would sound like. As the first act closed to Chorus ‘Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?’ from Cantata 8 I was in bliss, one of my favourite pieces of Bach, but heard in an entirely new way, with new complexities, new harmonic surprises and wonderfully, exotically daft.
The full audience were extremely pleased with the whole evenings performance giving the players some serious applause and BREMF should be pleased that such an innovative and fascinating night of experimental approach to such well-loved music was such a beautifully, refined and strangely moving concert. A fine tribute to Wendy Carlos and her pioneering work with Switched-on Bach 50 years ago.
Learn more about the Art of Moog
For more info about BREMF or to book tickets for up and coming performances check out their website.
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