Nicolas Altstaedt and Thomas Dunford restring classics by Marais and Bach, November 16
Performance by acclaimed cello-and-lute duo for Vancouver Recital Society is poised to bring bold energy to landmarks of Baroque music
Nicolas Altstaedt (left) and Thomas Dunford
The Vancouver Recital Society presents Nicolas Altstaedt and Thomas Dunford at the Vancouver Playhouse on November 16 at 3 pm
THE “ROCK STAR” LABEL occasionally gets attached to classical musicians, often for a spiky haircut or a public profile that strains concert-hall decorum. But in Thomas Dunford’s case, it’s for a free playing style that extends the musical reach of centuries-old compositions. Historian Kate Bolton once referred to the French-American lutenist as “a true ‘Eric Clapton’” of his instrument, citing improvisational abilities that open new paths through early-music repertoire.
Place him onstage with equally celebrated cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, and you get a performance of Baroque and Romantic music with unique energy. When the acclaimed musicians come to the Vancouver Playhouse on November 16 in a presentation by the Vancouver Recital Society, on their way to a Carnegie Hall date a couple of days later, the German-born Altstaedt will shine in a program replete with pieces by 17th-century French composer and viol player Marin Marais, renowned for both elegance and technical precision.
Along with a pair of works by Antoine Forqueray—a brash contemporary of Marais’s—the program also features Dunford’s remarkable lute transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s great Cello Suite No. 1 in G major. All of it will testify to the power that strings have always held, even in centuries long before anyone plugged in to a Marshall stack. 
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