Brecon Baroque,

Great Hall, Lancaster University

The excitement of the evening began well before the doors to the Great Hall opened for those in the audience who had googled the ensemble in advance. Knowing where they were coming from artistically was enough to whet anyone’s musical appetite sufficiently to mark the diary item as ‘unmissable’.

And so it was (unmissable). But any anticipation that only the absence of the aroma of coffee would detract from the feeling that one was truly sitting in the Zimmermannschen Kaffeehaus in 18th Century Leipzig was misguided. Instead of the ensemble’s usual German speciality, we got a waft of the Venetian Adriatic: nine superb musicians, including the group’s founder Rachel Podger, performing nine superb Baroque concertos in a 100 per cent Vivaldi programme.

The opus 3 concertos were composed variously for solo violin, two violins and four violins, sometimes with added cello. The ensemble chose to play at least two of each combination and amply demonstrated just how brilliant was Vivaldi’s ability to find ever new textures through boundless musical invention.

In the end, no one missed Bach. It had after all been yet another great Live at LICA chamber music evening to round off a super season.

Henry Prince