When Tom Morris called me to invite Wildcat Viols to play Purcell Fantasias at Ojai, I thought it was one of those random strokes of fantastic good luck that we all dream of. As performers firmly ensconced in the early music world, we usually operate in a variety of big-fish-in-a-little-pond situations, so it was very exciting to be invited into a larger body of water! Lucky, yes, but the more I thought about it, the less random it felt – in fact, in many ways it’s the perfect fit. There are very few professional viol consorts in the world, and of those, even fewer dare to delve deeply into Purcell’s Fantasias, which are considered the most technically and musically challenging pieces in the entire two hundred years’ worth of viol consort repertoire. But it just so happens that Wildcat Viols has made a specialty of the music of Purcell and his contemporaries. And to top it off, our first recording, focusing on this amazing music, has just come out. I don’t think Tom knew all of this when he invited us to Ojai -- so maybe the luck goes both ways! I’m intrigued by George Benjamin’s idea of juxtaposing Purcell’s Viol Fantasias with Indian ragas. I must admit my relative inexperience with Indian music, but I can see how this programming will immerse the audience in two contrasting sound worlds -- each in its way deeply intense, compelling, almost mesmerizing -- that might be less familiar to mainstream classical audiences. And it’s interesting to reflect that both Indian music and early music first appeared on this country’s radar screen at around the same time, as part of a larger, counterculture-driven interest in exploring musical worlds beyond the standard classical repertoire.
If only I could be in two places at once… I would love to experience the contrasts and similarities of our concert from the audience’s point of view. I hope we’ll get a chance to hang out and chat with audience members afterwards – I’m eager to hear what people think of George Benjamin’s unusual and ingenious programming idea.
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