Two masters of light and shade, of fantasy and invention, of formidable technical skill and profound musicianship.

Such epithets can be as readily applied to cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and lutenist Thomas Dunford as to Marin Marais and JS Bach. Fortunately, all four were present during this most perfect of concerts, the first in Altstaedt and Dunford’s national tour for Musica Viva Australia.

Nicolas Altstaedt and Thomas Dunford. Photo © David Cox

The music: exquisite. The playing: exquisite. Though if one were pressed to say what made this concert uniquely special, it would be the unusually intense quality of attention, of listening, of giving oneself over entirely to silence as much as to sound, that was required, nay, demanded of one.

This was perhaps nowhere more exemplified than in Dunford’s arrangement for solo lute of Bach’s Cello Suite No1 in G major, BWV 1007. On one level, barely audible in the Winthrop Hall. On another, like peals of distant thunder. How did Dunford accomplish this? Largely through the power of suggestion. And an exciting, improvisatory style of playing so compelling that one leant forward, straining to catch the point at which sounds die on the air.

In each of the six mostly French dance movements typical of the Baroque suite, Dunford’s variety of touch and phrasing, of a pace and flow completely anchored in style brisé, was such as to conjure up – if one may be permitted to say – a mythological musicology which surely resembles some kind of truth.

Nicolas Altstaedt and Thomas Dunford. Photo © David Cox

In the second half of the recital came Altstaedt’s reply in the form of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 – which Bach himself later adapted for lute. How did Altstaedt dance through the Prélude through the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande to the two Gavottes and final Gigue! But a meditative, philosophical kind of dance, wherein bowing and tone, long-breathed melody and multiple stopping, fugal mirages and percussive exclamations offered up a multitude of fresh insights even to those of us who know this music well.

Much of the rest of the program was originally written for the viola da gamba – superficially like a cello but in fact quite a different instrument, with a very different, more intimate, resonance, which one sometimes missed here – and continuo, tastefully realised by Dunford. But who could possibly not have been seduced by the ferocious virtuosity displayed by both players in Marais’ variations on Les Folies d’Espagne, or by their heartmeltingly expressive Les Voix humaines by the same composer?

Between and among these and other works by Marias, as well as by Forqueray and – somewhat anachronistically but aesthetically justifiable – Pärt and Duparc were beautiful, improvised transitions by Dunford and often witty spoken commentary from both artists.

Also, in relation to ornamentation – at no point was good taste harmed during the making of this recital.

Nicolas Altstaedt & Thomas Dunford play City Recital Hall, Sydney on 8 August, Melbourne Recital Centre on 11 August, Llewyllyn Hall, Canberra on 13 August, Newcastle City Hall on 15 August, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Brisbane on 17 August and Adelaide Town Hall on 18 August. For tickets to all venues, visit this link.