Bowman’s in a class of his own

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REVIEW - JAMES BOWMAN IN GIULIO CESARE
The Foundling Museum by JANE WILD

AS one of the world’s leading counter-tenors with a career spanning four decades, James Bowman singing Handel in the intimate setting of the Foundling museum would always be a gem of a concert.
Excerpts of Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto, were interspersed with anecdotes drawn from Bowman’s lengthy career, which made for a relaxed and informal evening.
Jovially reminiscing, Bowman regaled the audience with tales like the time a previous London performance of Julius Caesar overran.
With just 90 minutes to reach Glyndebourne, he ended up singing the first act of Midsummer Nights Dream still with the Caesar make up on, which incidentally, he claims no one noticed.
Excerpts such as Non e si vago e bello and Belle dee di questo core were delivered with overarching phrases and a carefree spirit.
Supporting musicians provided interludes as well as backing, such as a beautiful Harmonious Blacksmith played with utter rhythmic precision by keyboard player Steven Devine, who is co-principal keyboardist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
However Bowman’s exceptional standard sometimes far eclipsed the other musicians.
Cellist Nicholas Stringfellow, who also played Handel’s Cello Sonata, had a technical proficiency that couldn’t mask a murky tone.
And while violinist Colin Coleman phrased well, he stumbled over notes and played more than the occasional one out of tune, betraying the fact his day job is as the Foundling museum’s specialist Handel librarian.
But if the audience noticed, such was Bowman’s remarkable musicianship, that no one really seemed to mind.

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