Bach and Britten | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

James Morley’s cello playing took all the time he needed to make musical points, so his narratives were crystal clear.

Bach and Britten – cello player James Morley. Picture: Tony Lewis

Bach and Britten – Resonance: Chamber Landscapes

Classical Music

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

UKARIA Cultural Centre

March 12

There is a freshness about James Morley’s cello playing that seems to stem from his unique way of looking at things. Certainly, his program of Bach’s 6th Cello Suite in D and Britten’s 1st Cello Suite didn’t follow traditional lines.

He is a young man not in a hurry and took all the time he needed to make musical points frequently almost coming to a halt while musing or dwelling on something he particularly fancied. So, his musical narratives were crystal clear and that included presenting an enormous chasm between the two works.

His Bach bore a very light Baroque imprint with almost flirtatious lightness, transparency and spaciousness belying any hint of German solidity or earnestness. True there was dignity in the Allemande and solemnity in the Sarabande, but these were often accompanied with a calm pensiveness. Whisps of sound floated in the Sarabande and Gavottes, the latter extremely rhythmically free and capricious. And the Gigue and Courante scampered along in the most lighthearted and carefree of moods.

Morley sees the Britten in much stronger darker colours, full of big statements and powerfully projected. There was a real patchwork of characterisations in the Fugue, pathos in the Lamento and only the final Presto scampered in the manner Morley had established in the Bach.

To be able to maintain all the necessary unrushed loving care and focus establishing each work’s very unique credentials was no mean feat.