Bach Festival

I've remarked from time to time that Armidale has a rich cultural life. This week we have Wool Expo, an extravaganza of anything to do with sheep. There are professional fashion parades of the latest wool creations; sheep dog trials; lots of trade exhibits including sheep drenches and other chemicals for pasture improvement; sheep shearing exhibits; and so on. I go most years, but not this one, because by some remarkable coincidence the Expo coincides with the New England Bach festival, which has some marvellous events.

I can't recall any Bach festivals in the UK or elsewhere in Australia, yet a little town of about 22,000 people manages one! It involves some interesting Bach specialist performers like the Musica Antiqua Cologne, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Baroque Ensemble, and the Australian Baroque Brass. They perform a variety of organ music, cantatas, Brandenburg Concertos, and so on.

One of the most interesting events was this morning and it was free. Some local musicians - and Armidale has some excellent performers - staged a single work, Bach's Coffee Cantata, on the steps of a beautiful vaulted shopping arcade outside a coffee shop. The performance was excellent, partly because of the arcade's wonderful acoustics, and the performers wore 18th century dress, as the attached picture shows. I imagine that few places in the world could stage such an inspirational event.

What added to the colour was continual passing traffic of often young shoppers who didn't quite know what to make of bewigged singers and a chamber ensemble cheered on by a large audience including Dot and I aloft on the balcony. At one stage, the lead male singer came around and tapped eligible men on the shoulder to ask if they'd like to marry his daughter, and I rehearsed my best German to explain that I'm a bit on the old side. Alas, he never reached me to make an offer. I must have looked over the hill.

AS