Musical stories from Tom Guthrie and Barokksolistene at Middle Temple Hall
Die schöne Müllerin and The Alehouse Sessions at Middle Temple Hall, Thursday 18 November
Reviewed by Claire Seymour of Opera Today
In the 1980s, ‘authenticity’ was a buzzword in music research and performance; by the 1990s it was considered bothersome; nowadays it’s pretty much banished – a bygone concept of how we might approach the performance of music of bygone days.
But, if abstract academic debates about theory and practice run the risk of ‘domesticating’ music – putting it in a safe ‘drawer and bringing it out from time to time for close scholarly scrutiny – then this performance by director-singer Tom Guthrie and Barokksolistene (aka The Alehouse Boys) at Middle Temple Hall offered an authenticity of ‘experience’ that dragged music out of its box and back into the wild.