AT the end of the day, what should have been one of the great occasions, and one of the greatest concerts of the season, turned out on Monday to be slightly less than the sum of its parts.
Of course the Academy of Ancient Music is one of the UK's most supreme bands. And of course Richard Egarr, its music director and a very well-kent face in Scotland, where he has already directed the AAM and is a regular guest conductor and soloist with the SCO, is simply one of the best directors in the UK in this area of the repertoire.
And the repertoire for Monday night's concert featuring the AAM and its superb choir was bullet-proof: it was a dry-land Handel Jubilee-fest, fresh from the Jubilee Edwardian barge on the Thames the day before, and featuring the suite from the Water Music, the great Fireworks Music and all four of the Coronation Anthems, with the Amen and Hallelujah Choruses from Messiah (where, thanks be to all gods, nobody stood up) tacked on in encore style. However, despite the brilliance of the performances, where Egarr could be witnessed redefining the concept of expressiveness in Baroque music performance, while the clarity of AAM playing and choral singing were breathtaking, the lack of impact in the Coronation Anthems suggested that they were the right pieces at the right time but in the wrong place, underlining the fact that the massive Usher Hall auditorium was the wrong space in which to stage this music. It needs an intimate, City Hall-type space. But Edinburgh doesn't have one.
HHH
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