It was wonderful to see our best lunchtime audience since before the pandemic for our first Lunchtime Concert of 2023. Judging by the stream of appreciative comments as people left the Victorian Gallery, everyone really enjoyed the superb performance by Elysium Brass.
We were immediately jolted awake by the realisation that the piece we were listening to was not, as advertised, ‘Pastime with Good Company’, but an hors d’oeuvre from the canon of renaissance ‘battle’ pieces - in the first of a series of very jolly introductions, tuba player, Chris Claxton, explained that the composer was, in fact, Samuel Scheidt.
Elgar Howarth’s arrangement of music by Henry VIII did, indeed, follow. Amongst the lively dance-rhythms, the gentle lament ‘Adieu! Madame et ma Maistresse’ was memorable for the gorgeous and mellifluous sounds of the flugel horn.
A Canzona by Giovanni Gabrieli came next, and whilst the Museum couldn’t compete with the cavernous acoustic of St. Mark’s, Venice, we were reminded that brass ensembles sound absolutely splendid in our beautiful Victorian Gallery.
Florence Price’s lovely ‘Adoration’ took us across the Atlantic, and the extended suite from ‘Porgy and Bess’ came next, with all the well-known tunes from Gershwin’s ground-breaking opera being delivered with panache.
I wonder how many listeners conjured up images of a sultry Argentine Tango on ‘Strictly’ during Piazzolla’s moody ‘Oblivion’, again given a really idiomatic performance?
This was the final piece on the programme, but warm and enthusiastic applause encouraged Elysium Brass to return for one extra item, their signature tune, ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’, and we left with a warm glow inside to fortify us against the biting cold of a winter day in Leicester.
