Music over the Easter weekend at Snape was dominated by Bach. But sandwiched between a selection of the keyboard partitas played on Good Friday by harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and an Easter Sunday St Matthew Passion performed by Solomon’s Knot, there was a recital given by Esfahani with soprano Anna Dennis and oboist Nicholas Daniel that ranged more widely between the baroque and the present day.
There was Bach included, of course. Dennis showed what a wonderfully accomplished and appealing baroque interpreter she is, singing arias from cantatas 199 and 210 with velvety warmth and wonderfully secure control, their oboe obbligatos sensuously entwined with the vocal lines, while the programme was framed by Handel. Daniel and Esfahani eased their way through the C minor Oboe Sonata, while two of the Nine German Arias provided the finale, the florid ornamentation passed to and fro between Dennis and Daniel.
