Brighton Fringe 2026

Blatt/Darwin/Holford Baroque Violins/Piano Recital St Nicholas Church

Katy Blatt, Chris Darwin Sylvia Holford

Genre: Live Music, Music

Venue: St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton

Festival: Brighton Fringe, Brighton Year-Round

Low Down

Review

Violinists Katy Blatt and Chris Darwin with pianist Sylvia Holford step in to give a surprise baroque concert at St Nicholas, bringing Handel, Teleman, Leclair Vivaldi and Bach.

Blatt is an art historian and violinist who after musical at training at Cambridge performs nationwide, and as part of Corelli Strings. Darwin also trained at Cambridge though ended as Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Sussex. Holford was for many years part of Brighton Festival Chorus and a BBC accompanist.

They begin with Darwin intriguing five baroque composers. Handel’s Trio Sonata in G minor Op 2/5 HWV390 is an early work the publisher Walsh brought out. Unlike the Op 1 Handel made sure he was in charge. No more rogue sonatas attributed to him, even if he did knock off a few tunes from elsewhere.  It including a Grave or Larghetto and Allegro, reflecting Handel’s early Italian sojurn: a blend of Corelli’s style with Handel’s own melodic twists and sheer vocality.

It’s in the traditional slow-fast alternating nice and later baroque style. There’s dash and elan here. And a powerful propulsion. Though aware of period performance styles this trip applies them with taste and with a panache that doesn’t adhere too closely to the older period school, but with the liberal and liberated awareness of third-generation baroque players like Rachel Podger. There’s fire and fun here, reflected in the audience’s  response.

Georg Philip Telemann, composer of 3000 pieces (a record suggests Darwin), gets a fine introduction here. Born 1681 he kept abreast of musical trends so that at the end of his life he was writing in the contemporary Galant and classical style of the 11-year-old Mozart. Older than his contemporaries Handel, Bach, Scarlatti (Domenico), Rameau and Graupner he outlived even Rameau.  His last ten years from 1757-67 were his greatest.

His bright Canonic Study No 1 in G major (TWV 40:118) for two violins from around 1738 is both probing in the minor, and thews with the same world as Bach’s Violin Partitas. It’s again a work with a terrific canon in its motor. But also musically memorable inventive and here dispatched with vigour and polish.

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) was murdered by his nephew; or wife. Trained in dance a bit like his forebear Lilly. Also working for the king (now Louis XV). . But like Telemann his marriage broke up and he ended dead in a rough neighbourhood.

Leclair is later baroque but above all French. His work follows the clavecinistes like Francois Le Grand Couperin, Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Rameau. It’s an extraordinarily rich period for French music. Leclair is singular for being the preeminent violin composer following the Italian ones like Vivaldi, Veracini Tartini and Locatelli – the last three just a bit older than Leclair.

His Violin Sonata Op 3 No. 5 in G major from around 1730 is a rare and fascinating work in the slow fast baroque style. Here sleekness of motif and elegance relaxed the heavier else.one finds in Telemann and even later in Vivaldi. There a fleet melodic brightness but still a seriousness about this that take it sing from the slow throated opening to the worked through but not monumental fugal and developmental sections in the fast movements.

Vivaldi here in more serious guide certainly. His Double Violin Concerto in D minor Op 3 No 11 (Vivaldi’s breakthrough L’Estro Harmonico collection of 1711) is reduced to a trio accompaniment on piano. There’s a plunging dark and thicker textures than were used to in Vivaldi. It’s his major statement of the set in scale and a certain weight to be taken seriously by those heavy Germans. And Bach, seven years his junior, was a huge admirer.

The slow movement has more Italian spring to it and is gentler but the dark never evaporates and when the heading conclusion starts we’re in a tail chasing powerhouse of violin writing. It’s a typical Vivaldi storm one feels

Blatt and Darwin are wholly attuned to an idiom of partnership and style. Holford ensures the piano adds spice and apple but never overpowers.

Finally, Bach himself. His Double Concerto in A minor. Which Darwin quips that he fist performed 72 years ago and probably hasn’t improved on! He been have worried.

In fact it’s a rapt adieu gently pointed up by Holford as Blatt and Darwin intertwine their melodic lines in a timeless duet. It’s still a miraculous highpoint of violin writing and this trio does it justice. You forget the performers here for the most part, the best compliment I can pay them. A gem.

Published May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by Simon Jenner