The Georgian Concert Society incorporates an important season of early music concerts ranging from the Renaissance to the early Classical periods. This year marks the Society’s thirty-eighth season and does not fail to impress with its selection of visiting ensembles and artists. Due to the ongoing restoration and refurbishment of Edinburgh’s St. Cecilia’s Hall (which also incorporates an extensive museum of keyboard instruments) these concerts have found a temporary home in St. Andrew’s and St. George’s West. An impressive church located in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town, it is of architectural and historical significance dating from 1784. The Church was built close to Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms, of further musical interest as the venue for Liszt and Paganini’s performances during their respective tours of Scotland.

Tonight’s concert of Antonio Vivaldi by ensemble La Serenissima was attended well and, despite drastic changes to the advertised programme, the audience were appreciative. Intended to promote the ensemble’s recent well-received recording for Avie Records, in collaboration with bassoonist Peter Whelan, the original concert programme featured concerto solos. Unfortunately, Whelan had to cancel due to a family bereavement. Creative reprogramming by director and violinist Adrian Chandler proved resourceful, instead showcasing the artistry of La Serenissima’s cellist, Vladimir Waltham, in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin, Cello, Strings and Continuo in B-flat, RV 547. Veronese composer Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco’s Concerto V in B-flat, Opus 5, opened the concert with great flare, whilst a further work by Vivaldi, Concerto Madrigalesco, RV 129, completed the revised programme.

Along with a colourful selection of waistcoats, La Serenissima demonstrates a well-balanced string ensemble, approaching both the pace and energy with a controlled, yet expressive manner. With a pure tone, the players maintained their control over structural climaxes, sustaining a sense of anticipation and drive towards these throughout. Solos were well supported by the stable continuo playing of Joseph McHardy (harpsichord) and Gareth Deats (cello). All ensemble players were collectively unified in vision whilst individually bringing character and shape to their own playing.

As Master of Ceremonies, Chandler was both informative and entertaining in introducing the violino in tromba marina or ‘prepared violin’. Today a musical curiosity with recorded use as far back as the twelfth century, it was known as the ‘Nun’s Trumpet’ and was preferred to the use of brass in cloistered convents. Vivaldi’s concertos for the instrument are the only surviving sources, with one exception by Nicola Porpora (1686-1768). Tonight, Vivaldi’s concertos in G and D (RV 311 and 221) were performed on a reproduction. The instrument was intended to simulate the idiomatic brassier sound through the means of metallic pins protruding through the bridge and cheaper strings made of brass. Designing this instrument himself, Chandler may have tamed the expressive capabilities of the instrument, potentially over-refining what might have originally been a harsher, more abrasive sound. Rasping effects were idiomatic of the instrument’s timbral character. Whilst such effects were evident in some solos using this recreated violino, particularly in the lower register, tonight’s performance may highlight the potential for further research in reconstructing this instrument.

Headlining the concert was Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni, sourced from the 1726 edition, currently housed at the Henry Watson Library in Manchester. Again featuring Chandler, this time on a conventional baroque violin, the performance communicated a real understanding for the poetic and theatrical composition of the work. Certainly a performance with scholarly intent, it neither felt heavily weighted in academic thought, nor aspired to the rhapsodic flair of other recent interpretations. Instead it was a skilfully crafted and insightful performance of such a recognised and popularised work.

The first performance of the Georgian Concert Society season took place on 19th October 2015 at St. Andrew’s and St. George’s West, Edinburgh.