My husband went to a couple of concerts in the Bath Festival, both given by performers who clearly enjoyed what they were doing.
Roman Rabinovich did a cycle of Haydn sonatas at St Michael’s Church. These were good performances given in a plain unshowy style on a modern piano. They were at a rather unusual time – mid-morning on weekdays, with coffee served. He gave brief spoken introductions to the sonatas, commenting that he felt Haydn was underrated. He played off a tablet with a scan of the score which scrolled to the right place as he played – even going back for a repeat! It must have been carefully coordinated with the speed of his playing (or possibly controlled by a page-turner planted in the audience or offstage?)
Roderick Williams’ Schwanengesang in the Assembly Rooms was excellent – he took more notice of the audience than Lieder singers often do. Some interpreters are quite harsh on, for example, Der Doppelgänger; Williams was more lyrical. Iain Burnside’s accompaniment was thoughtful and unobtrusive. The only criticism was that the pitch might have been slightly higher than optimal for him.
The only other part of the Festival I was involved with was the ‘Party in the City’ which this year was a couple of days in. My church hosted some groups, for the first time and after dropping some flyers there I went off to the school’s annual bash at Green Park Station.