First concert in one of this season’s series, Orfeus Barock. Solo cello and lute, and the two together. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Silvius Leopold Weiss and Domenico Gabrielli.

I love Bach’s cello suites (one of which was included today) and cello music in general, and yet somehow this concert didn’t work for me. It wasn’t bad, in any way, but somehow the music melted into a soothing blanket of sound and the melody got lost.

My seat was several rows back and I couldn’t see the musicians very well. The lighting was low, with much of the room quite dim and a single lamp lighting up the sheet music, and the musicians to a certain extent. (In the photo above the main lights have been turned on again; it wasn’t this bright during the concert at all.) The organisers said they wanted to recreate the feeling of being in your own living room, but for me the result was just soporific.

Maybe it was also the performers’ style? I would have wanted to someone else play the same piece directly afterwards, to compare.