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Synod Hall Theatrics

by Mark Kanny

Red Priest returned to Synod Hall Sunday to push the entertainment envelope even further than on its last appearance here for Renaissance and Baroque Society concerts.

The program paid tribute to the way baroque composers were pirates by stealing other composers' ideas. The musicians delight in theatricality wasn't limited to performing in pirates' costumes. The music itself was taken and rearranged to showcase stunning virtuosity and flamboyant stagecraft.

Recorder player Piers Adams offered quick wit in his commentary as well as amazingly fast playing. Guest violinist David Greenberg was totally into the concept, too, subbing for Adam's wife Julia Bishop, who was home with their new child.

The most shocking moment came when cellist Angela East -- whose reliability and virtuosity were undimmed by demanding stunts -- played it straight in her richly expressive performance of the Prelude from Johann Sebastian Bach's First Cello Suite

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