Egarr leads Enlightenment at BBC Proms
September 2003
In his second appearance with The Orchestra of The Age Of
Enlightenment, Richard Egarr conducted a 'striking and moving' (Times)
performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the BBC Proms and the Utrecht
Early Music Festival. Directing a crew of Sarah Connolly, Carolyn Sampson,
Christopher Purves a.o., The Orchestra and Choir of The Age of Enlightenment,
Richard Egarr gave proof of his remarkable talents as conductor in vocal
productions and one of Britain's leading young figures in the Early Music
Scene.
Concerts:
Tuesday 2 September, 2003
BBC Proms, 22.00 hrs
Royal Albert Hall, London
Wednesday 3 September 2003
Utrecht Early Music Festival, 20.00 hrs
Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht
This is what the Press wrote:
Visual drama? Well, there was Richard Egarr, who stood to conduct with manic hands when not stroking beauties from the harpsichord's keys. But with Purcell's music, so pungent, so concise, no one needs stage action. In the great lament, Connolly's halting tone made her ornamentations seem like little daggers stabbing at her heart. This was a striking, as well as moving, performance; applause followed only after a heartfelt silence.
The Times Online
The forces, too, were a draw: the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment backed by its own, classy chorus, directed from the harpsichord by Richard Egarr. His method of conducting - straddling a piano stool turned lengthways, leading with vigorous nods and rolls of the head -may be unconventional but his exuberance brought many rewards. In the overture, the smooth, interlacing lines of the first section morphed seamlessly into a punchy allegro[...]. But this wasn't simply a fashionably zippy baroque reading. Indeed, Dido's final aria was taken so slowly that it would have defeated a lesser singer than Sarah Connolly. She was a reserved, regal queen, yet her supremely controlled, velvety phrases conveyed much, and the sudden tiny stab of vulnerability leading in to her final aria was all the more moving for her earlier composure. Egarr had ideas of his own, eschewing melodrama and unsubtle comedy and even bypassing the grotesquery that often infuses the coven scenes. Instead of a counter-tenor drag-queen with a couple of old hags in tow, there was the bass-baritone D'Arcy Bleiker as the Sorceress, supported by Anna Dennis and Alexandra Gibson, two well-matched and initially rather polite witches. Hectoring impressively from behind the orchestra, Bleiker was more than a match for Christopher Purves's well-projected but slightly husky Aeneas.
Guardian Online
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