AFTER a successful Virtual Bath Bach Minifest online over the weekend, organisers have decided to leave the concerts available to see for all this week.

Due to lockdown the event was livestreamed from the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon.

Violinist Rachel Podger, one of the leading Baroque interpreters, opened the festival with a lunchtime programme of music by J S Bach and his lesser known contemporary, Tartini.

That evening Andrew Carwood took to the virtual stage with The Cardinall’s Musick. His themed programme, entitled Sing to the Lord, featured the music of the Baroque period by J S Bach and his forebears, alongside work by Melchior Franck, Johannes Eccard, Heinrich Schütz and Johann Pachelbel.

On Saturday the cellist Adrian Brendel, firmly established as one of the leading cellists of the current generation as a soloist and for his work with The Nash Ensemble, appeared with award-winning harpsichordist Sophie Yates. They played works by J S Bach and Girolamo Frescobaldi, the latter not, perhaps, a household name today but a great trendsetter in his day whose keyboard compositions influenced Bach.

The brief Bath Bachfest closed with a tribute to the two biggest names of the particularly musically fertile Baroque period: J S Bach and Handel. Laurence Cummings directed The English Concert in a crowd-pleasing concert featuring Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti No’s 4 and 5, alongside Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 3 and his concerto for violin Sonata à Cinq.

James Slater, artistic director of the music centre, said: “At a very difficult time for those in the music world, our collaboration with Bath Mozartfest/Bachfest has been entirely positive and mutually beneficial. It showcases the clear value that our new livestream platform can offer: by embracing new technology and allowing people to tune into our performances from home we are able to celebrate live music and support artists, too. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to do it again for the Bachfest.”

Go to www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk/whats-on/watch-again-bath-bachfest to watch any of the performances again this week