In praise of … Rachel Podger/ATOS Trio

We’ve been to two exceptional concerts in the last few days. First we went up to the Wigmore Hall for the Schubert birthday concert, where the ATOS trio played the two Schubert piano trios to deserved acclaim from a rapt audience. Wonderfully nuanced playing, deeply felt. About as good as it gets for performances of these stunning pieces  (it is time the ATOS recorded them). If you get the chance to see the trio, they really are quite outstanding.

Then a very different evening, listening to Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque playing eight of the concertos from Vivaldi’s L’estro Armonico  in the antechapel at King’s College. I love their deservedly multi-award-winning recording of La Stragavanza, and the live concert was just terrific — played with verve and enjoyment, playfulness and charm, and a lot of light and shade. Technically brilliant too. The performances made the case wonderfully well for Rachel Podger’s description of these works, in her lovely talk to the audience after the first concerto, as intriguingly complex and rule-bending. The audience was sadly a bit thin, but again was bowled over. A recording of L’estro Armonico is the next project for these players together: you will want the CDs when they are out, and in the meantime get their earlier Vivaldi recording (their Bach is brilliant too …).