A PENT-UP ball of energy, Northern Sinfonia leader Bradley Creswick bounded onto the stage to direct the strings of The Northern Sinfonia in an exhilarating evening of baroque music.
The programme at the Sage, celebrating the violin, opened with Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins. Creswick, along with Iona Brown, Gerald Gregory and Jane Nossek displayed a musical intuitiveness borne out of hours in rehearsal. They picked up the phrases from each other with impeccable timing.
The slow movement flowed with a lithe fluency. Jonathan Storer and Simone Brown then stepped up to mark to give a superlative rendition of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins.
Backed sympathetically by the strings and harpsichordist David Wright, they elucidated the score’s logical beauty with an ineffable charm.
After fronting a sizzling performance of Corelli’s Concerto Grosso, Creswick was joined in a unique duet by dancer Vivien Wood, who gave her interpretation of Bach’s Violin Sonata no 2.
For Gateshead-born Wood, who trained at the Royal Ballet before a successful career as one of the country’s leading contemporary dancers, this was her first appearance before a home audience.
Picked out by economical use of lighting, her dazzling display reflected every twist and turn in the score.
The evening ended with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The work has been made famous by numerous commercial recordings, but Creswick put his distinctive stamp on it.
Spring radiated with the sense of new beginnings and after a languorous start to summer came a brilliant evocation of a thunderstorm.
Creswick was in his element, giving a scorching performance that was injected with wit. In one break he mopped his brow and, laughing, gave his violin a wipe as well. Stamina unbridled, he bounded off the stage and back again three times to take the bow. An encore completed a perfect evening.
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