IF you are a regular viewer of the Repair Shop on TV you will be used to people who have brought in distressed heirlooms that remind them of the lost loved ones who actually made them, saying of their loved ones when they return to admire the expertly re-invented prized possession “I can see them somewhere up above, admiring your wonderful work and saying thank you”.

This last Mozart Fest programme arranged by Amelia Freedman before her death in July, like those repaired heirlooms was presented with loving care and great musical talent by all those concerned in this year’s Fest.

The Nash Ensemble, founded 60 years ago by Amelia Freedman, encapsulated the feeling of all the contributors in the way in which they shared with their audience their love of the music they were playing. After the Nash had brought the first half of the Fest to an end, we were left with four lunchtime concerts in the Guildhall and four evening events in St Mary’s, Bathwick, before the grand finale, Mozart’s Mass in C minor from La Nuova Musica in Bath Abbey.

Those lunchtime events are a real boon to those who now find it difficult to attend in the evening and The Carducci String Quartet, violinist Jenifer Pike and pianist Jeremy Pike, and Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips (four hands on one piano), and the Kleio Quartet, provided them with a wonderful variation of music and styles, the delicacy of the Pike’s fascinating mixture of flute, clarinet and harp from the Kleio, and bombardment of sound in their arrangement of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring by Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips, that made you wonder how they could escape injury to their hands.

Matching the lunchtime choice, in the evenings St Mary’s offered a solo piano Cederic Tiberghien, Mozart and Beethoven, choral singing Tenebrae under their conductor Nigel Short, the Castalian String Quartet and Dame Imogen Cooper who, following her beautiful playing of Mozart piano concerto No 27 with the Halle Orchestra, joined forces with violinist Henning Kraggerud and cellist Adrian Brendel to play Schubert’s piano trios No. 1 and 2.

It is Adrian Brendel who has taken on the awesome task of following Amelia Freedman as Artistic Director for next year’s Mozart fest, and prior to that the Bach Fest which begins in February 2026. Very much his own man, you can expect a few changes to take place, none which will lower the standards of these festivals which have become more and more prestigious year after year under the guidance of Amelia Freedman, but are certain to bring a new and exciting faces to two much-loved favourite musical events.

GRP

 

Photograph of Adrian Brendel by Peter Adamik