Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville Civic Theatre
August 1, 2018

Day six of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music saw the return of a Townsville favourite, the Bach by Candlelight concerts. The AFCM’s new Artistic Director Kathryn Stott has continued the tradition, programming two concerts that – in true festival style – came at the master’s works from a different angle, rather than simply trotting out the old warhorses.

The first concert saw the world premiere of UK novelist and music journalist Jessica Duchen’s Being Mrs Bach, featuring the writer herself in the title role – and in costume. The well-worn history of the Bach family was here told through the eyes of Johann Sebastian’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, in a performance that gently but firmly pushed her to the centre of a story from which she has so often been sidelined.