PETER MARSHALL AND JEFFERY WILSON

Environ Music Lunchtime Concert at the Cramphorn

12.11.08

These two affable musical chaps gave us a predictably enjoyable, and challenging, hour of music.

Bach to Blues and Bach Again gave the programme its title, and turned out to be an arrangement by Peter Marshall, wrapping the Birth of the Blues inside some smooth Johann Sebastian, with Jeffery Wilson on clarinet.

There was autumnal music too, with a poignant version of the Last Post to mark Armistice Day.

But the key theme was the recession, with upbeat titles like Blue Skies, Over the Rainbow, Get Happy, with the favoured format the 2 for 1, a medley of two tunes, including a memorable romp with Wilson at the piano and Marshall on his trusty bugle: Stardust preceded by Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams. As Jeffery reminded us, in the 30s, when the great depression hit the States, people found solace in bootleg liquor, entertainment, and those great songs that are standards still, such as Fats Waller's Ain't Misbehavin'.

Among the regular weekly Wednesday lunchtimes coming up is Whirlwind – a wind quintet – on December 17, and in the new year, Kay Usher's hot violin on January 14.