Lammermuir Festival review: Master & Commander, St Michael’s Church, Inveresk

IT WASN’T too difficult a concept to grasp for an evening of music and speech, but it still needed an explanation from Lammermuir Festival artistic co-director James Waters.

Master & Commander

St Michael’s Church, Inveresk

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The event combined readings by actor Robert Hardy from some of Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series of naval adventures set in the early 19th century with music of the same period played by the Raeburn Quartet. And the reason we were in St Michael’s Church, Inveresk, was the presence of Napoleonic admirals in the graveyard.

It felt like quite a long evening, but it was hard not to be gripped by Hardy’s thrilling recounting of O’Brian’s heroic tales, whether of naval promotions, family intrigues or dramatic battles. The music worked best, though, when there was a clear link with O’Brian’s text. A movement by Locatelli following a description of the same piece played in a concert was striking, but at other times the connections seemed somewhat arbitrary. The moving Sarabande from Bach’s D minor Partita made an evocative postscipt, however, to a scene of naval carnage.

The Raeburn players kept the authenticity high in using instruments from the time, but although their performances were spirited, they didn’t project enough for their playing to be truly gripping. A fascinating idea, then, but despite Hardy’s exceptional readings, only a moderately successful execution.