The First Bath Bachfest

24 & 25 February 2012

A Resounding Success

The new Bath Bachfest started with a spell-binding concert given by the Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova with theAcademyofAncient Music.  To quote Rebecca Franks in BBC Music Magazine:

            Four notes.  That’s all it took for Alina Ibragimova to entrance her audience in the first of Bath’s Bachfest concerts, the new heir to the city’s former Bath Bach Festival.  As she began to play there was an instant, magical, hush in the audience; the glitter of the glass chandeliers seemed to blur into the background.  By the end of the fiendish solo violin piece, it scarcely seemed surprising that one audience member uttered a breathless but clearly audible ‘wow’.

The outstanding young violinist’s performance of Biber’s Passacaglia in G minor for solo violin set the tone for this remarkable opening concert which, alongside more Biber and works by Vivaldi, included several J S Bach pieces.

Rian Evans, reviewing the same concert for The Guardian, opined that the success of this new festival seemed assured on the basis of this concert which contained music that was ‘simply sublime’ and ‘breathtaking stuff’.

To see excerpts from this concert visit the following website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgDUb8IMGiM

The all-Bach full-length ‘coffee concert’ on Saturday brought Florilegium to the City again, and provided a delicious diversion on a wintry morning much appreciated by the capacity audience.

Saturday evening’s concert in Bath’s glorious Abbey provided a showcase for the considerable talents of the Retrospect Ensemble, choir and orchestra, under the baton and directorship of Matthew Halls, with accompanying soloists.  Once again, journalists and early music aficionados alike adored this programme of motets and cantatas, which culminated in a short Latin Mass, consisting of the Kyrie and Gloria, which Bach wrote for feast days.  This was a most fitting end to a veritable feast of the great composer’s work.

So, a resounding success for the new Bath Bachfest, under the peerless artistic direction of Amelia Freedman, which has ensured that it will continue as an annual event.

Next year a slightly longer – 5 concert – Bath Bachfest is planned running from 21 to 23 February 2013.  Further details will be published here in due course.

If you would like to support the fledgling Bath Bachfest and work with us to allow it to grow and develop, as its sister-festival the Bath Mozartfest has, please contact Development Director, Jackie Inverdale: jackie.inverdale@mbzonline.net