The Bath Mozartfest presented a full programme for its 2022 edition, largely in the Assembly Rooms (the Guildhall did not feature). All Covid restrictions had apparently been lifted, apart from visible hand sanitizer and the absence of a coat rack. Another absence was Mozartkugels on sale in the interval, but I’m told that they had not been proving lucrative for the Festival.
We went to a concert at my favourite time of Saturday morning, to hear the Pavel Haas Quartet. After Haydn’s Op 76 no. 1, came Prokofiev’s second quartet in F, unknown to us but clearly meriting a closer acquaintance. The concert concluded with Schubert’s D887 in G, centered on its slow movement punctuated with interjections. The quartet sat in an unusual arrangement: first violin, second violin, cello, viola. A characteristic of their interpretations was that the melody was always clearly projected.
Another family member went to hear Jennifer Pike and her father Jeremy in recital playing music for violin and piano by Mozart (K380), Clara Schumann (Romance, Op 22 no. 1) and Grieg (Op 8). The undemonstrative interpretation suited these pieces, none of which could really be counted as major works, well.
Meanwhile, David Bednall returned to church to accompany Nosferatu, a silent film which I’m told established many conventions in its genre. (As my main point of reference for horror films is Young Frankenstein, I can’t really comment except that I recognised some of them!) As usual the accompaniment came to blend with the film until you were not aware of it being created separately from it. These silent film screenings with live accompaniment are developing quite a following locally.