25th November – Angels and Saints – Academy of Ancient Music
The Piano Shop Bath looks forward to this forthcoming concert at Dorchester Arts centre. Dorchester Arts Centre aims to connect and inspire through its promotion of the arts. Underpinning the work of the centre is the belief in the transformative and healing power of the arts. This Tuesday the 25th of November will see a performance by the Academy of Ancient music led by Bojan Cicac that will include works by Vivaldi, Leclair and Biber.
The Academy of ancient music has blazed a trail in the performance of ancient music since it was founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973. The intention was simple but revolutionary, to play baroque and classical music on period instruments. This idea is intriguing to The Piano Shop Bath because it focuses the mind on the way in which musical instruments can be organic and fluid artefacts. They are brought to life by the people around them but they also play a part in forming the inherent personality of the music they are needed to make.
For example, in modern piano music one might choose a Yamaha Grand piano if a brighter pop sound was required for a recording, but choose a Bechstein Grand piano for a classical recording. In a similar way The Academy of Ancient music uses instruments with strings made of animal gut not steel, the trumpets have no valves and the cellists hold their cellos between their legs and not on the floor. The director Bojan Cicac plays a violin from around 1680, which makes our Steinway model A from 1900s seem positively young!
This innovative approach to music making has laid the foundations for one of the worlds great orchestras that has performed all over the world and won numerous awards. The Piano Shop Bath feels sure this will be a fascinating opportunity to watch a mid winter concert from an ingenious ensemble.