La Pastorella: Piping songs of pleasant glee

This is the last in a series of four concerts, 'Pied Piper Remembered', celebrating the remarkable life and work of David Munrow – one of the great pioneers of Early Music. Munrow was an inspiration to thousands. His regular radio slot 'Pied Piper' had countless listeners enthralled, as he deftly opened up a world of lesser-known repertoire to a wider public.

Fiori’s final concert fetes Munrow as the bucolic flauto player. Wherever the Pied Piper led the children of Hamelin (up the mountains, away to Transylvania – the stories vary), the legend with its roots in medieval folklore continued to resonate, inspiring Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and, of course, Robert Browning’s famous poem, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. All recount how the Piper is hired by Hamelin to rid the town of its plague of rats. And how the rats, mesmerised by the sound of the Piper’s magical flute, are enchanted away.

Turns out, this is no legend. On the facade of the Pied Piper house in Hamelin, an inscription reads: 'A.D. 1284 – on the 26th of June – the day of St John and St Paul – 130 children – born in Hamelin – were led out of the town by a piper wearing multicoloured clothes. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared forever.' Some link the story to the St Vitus dance, a form of mania where people danced compulsively till they dropped. There was an outbreak in Erfurt, near Hamelin, in the 13th century when young people danced uncontrollably out of the town for 12 miles!

So for Fiori Musicali's final concert in homage to Munrow they shamelessly integrate the thrilling madness of St Vitus with the brilliance of Vivaldi in a feast of inventive chamber concertos featuring Munrow’s immortal flauto.

Programme:
Vivaldi Chamber Concerto in G Minor RV103
Vivaldi Sonata for recorder & bassoon in A Minor RV86
Vivaldi Sonata in C RV801
Vivaldi Chamber Concerto in G Minor RV105
Schickhardt La Folia, Op. 6, No. 6
Vivaldi La Pastorella in D RV95

Fiori Musicali Chamber Ensemble:
Heidi Fardell recorder
Gail Hennessy oboe
Rebecca Hammond bassoon
Poppy Walshaw cello
Penelope Rapson organ/director