@theoae and Mozart, Myslivicek and Don Giovanni.

Our first performance of this startling wind programme was given in Bradford on Avon yesterday. With the ‘Gran Partitia’ making up the first half and some lighter works entertaining players and audience alike in the second half, this programme was a little unusual.
I’m playing three different instruments in this concert made by three talented makers. B flat clarinet after H. Grenser made by Daniel Bangham. It works really well, projects and sings all at the same time. Grenser style C clarinet is by Peter van der Poel, the sound flows from it with ease and the intonation is superb. My basset horn is by Guy Cowley and is a rather ‘pure’ copy of a Lotz instrument with fewer keys that I am used to having for the first basset part of the Gran Partita! What I’m learning is that the best instruments don’t need extra gadgets to make them attractive, the beauty is built in. This instruments is a dream to play, it feeds back with its own ideas on sound and colour and inspires me a fresh each time I play. Guy Cowley is a perfectionist in everything he does, as a player and as a maker he never disappoints.
The OAE is in fine form and I can’t wait for the upcoming week when we explore the Gran Partita in concerts at the South Bank Centre (London), and The Anvil (Basingstoke).