RE-INVENTION alarm!
Any die-hard Vivaldi fan who wants Four Seasons in authentic form should leave Worcester now. If you were not at this concert, be sorry that you missed Red Priest who played pieces by Vivaldi interspersed with Biber, Corelli, Couperin and Van Eyck in a seemless pastiche of wit and virtuosity. These apply to all four performers, recorder player Piers Adams, violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and harpsichordist Howard Beach.

Red Priest do more than re-define Baroque music playing. They re-define the art of concert performance itself. They produce the sound of a full orchestra. In their satire, they act, dance and make fabulous sounds such as the cackling, rasping and hissing of their witches. They move without embarrassing attempts at so-called movement. They were drunk without staggering. They looked properly frantic like peasants who have had a good dance. It all fitted into a musical performance.

The affair was not without its powerful imagery as well. Vivaldi’s Summer (from his Four Seasons) had birds, a crying shepherd, a shepherd dog, a dog becoming a bitch, the drone of a mosquito and really threatening thunder.

They go from major to minor keys without the need to give notice; Julia Bishop slides about the violin strings without strain. They make the unnatural seem natural because they have such control of their material and their instruments.

I am sure that Vivaldi, Biber, Corelli, Couperin and Van Eyck would have loved what Red Priest do.