French violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and his ensemble, Le Consort, made their Proms debut on 20 July, at the Royal Albert Hall.
They performed a program featuring violin concertos by Vivaldi, alongside works by Legrenzi, Marcello, and Matteis Jr.
Their performance was absolutely mesmerising – Pure ‘Baroque bliss!’
Théotime’s violin is over 300 years old, and was made by a contemporary and possibly a friend of both baroque composers – Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi.
So, a little bit of history was made at this Prom!
You can watch their performance on the BBC i-Player.
The season has only just begun, and this was one of the best Proms I have ever seen.
I highly recommend it.
Here is one of the reviews –
‘Le Consort is a French Baroque chamber ensemble whose director is violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, and they put a programme together that – according to de Swarte – aimed to tell “the story of the emergence of the violin concerto in Venice, and how Johann Sebastian Bach created his own style of concerto from it”. By alternating between composers throughout the concert, it creates the effect of Bach, Vivaldi et. al. in conversation with one another, as the violin concerto form starts to really take shape. …
Sunday mornings are generally considered to be the choice of the hardcore Proms fan, so it’s unsurprising that you could hear a pin drop during every single piece; this really made the difference when Le Consort needed to play around with diminuendo and crescendo, as the tension generated by the change in volume and power wasn’t punctured by a phone being dropped or people needing to have a chat.
Both acts contained one very well known piece – the “Air” from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major (often referred to as “Air on the G string”) came in the first half, and was actually bumped up the order slightly. This worked quite nicely, partly to have something more widely recognisable earlier in the programme, but also to demonstrate the interplay between Bach and the Italian composers whose works were selected.’
https://lnkd.in/e842FHnf
Viva Le Consort, and come back to London soon – you represent everything that the Proms is about!