The Basset Horn Ladies – Alison Gardiner @alison.gardiner.art
Our basset horn evening ten days ago with the ladies from the Vauxhall Band, Sarah Thurlow, Katherine (Waffy) Spencer and Fiona Mitchell, entirely lived up to expectations. It was hard to say which were the more delightful, the basset horns or the ladies who played them.
Although Mozart and his good friend Anton Stadler were basset horn enthusiasts, and other composers did write for them, over the nineteenth century the horns got eclipsed by other wind instruments. When they are played today, it is normally a modern, straight, dark wood basset, not the quirky bent, light wood horns of the 18th century. As a result, the basset horn ladies, all of whom have extremely successful other careers as woodwind players, rarely get to play their 18th century horns. So, a whole evening devoted to 18th century basset horns (with just a small segway into three chalumeaux) was as exciting for the players as it was for us.
The ladies are obviously devoted to their horns – super talented, totally charming but often extremely irritating ‘children’ with strong wills of their own. Sarah decribed how condensation created by the players’ warm breath coming into contact with the cold wood of the horn dripped out of the holes at its bend and on down your arm as you were playing; Waffy’s horn blew itself out in the middle of the Mozart Divertimenti and had to be mended with a rubber band and Fiona’s horn added its own one note coda at the end of Družecký’s Divertimenti – listen out at the end of the clip. But, as with charming small children, they had us all enchanted by the end of the evening.
The clip below starts with a brief taste of Mozart from the Marriage of Figaro, then a polonise from Vojtěch Nudera, a snatch from Christoph Graupner’s Air on the chalumeaux (a deep throated 18th century ancestor of the clarinet) and an Allegro from Jiří Družecký – with contribution from Fiona’s horn!
The concert was followed, as promised, by a Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens supper – although on a rather more generous scale than you would have got at the gardens. Very thinly sliced cold meats, two salads (the ever popular cabbage and caper and a Victoria cooked root vegetable salad), cheeses, breads, Queen cakes and Shrewsbury biscuits.
If anyone would like to know more about the Pleasure Gardens – and the much decried food served there – check in to this post or, for more fascinating details, to David Coke’s wonderful Vauxhallgardens.com site – and for more on the food and menus, here.
Meanwhile…..
Have you booked yet for Declan Hickey’s solo guitar recital on May 16th? Our last three concerts were sold out a couple of weeks before the event, so do not leave booking too late!
To book – £30 to include wine & supper – go here.
And see our new Upcoming Events page
Concerts here at Hampstead Lane but including other performances by artists who have played for us or which have some local relevance.
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