Lammermuir Festival: Johan Löfving
The concert was originally to be Alex McCartney on Theorbo playing all Kapsberger. The programme notes were full of interesting stuff about Rome: its ancient architecture, papal politics, kingly conquests. I wondered if there could be much to say about the music itself. In the event Alex had to cancel, having injured his hand. Deftly replacing him, Johan offered us a varied set by several composers, theorbo alternating with baroque guitar. He also gave us brief insights into the history and techniques of the two instruments.
The theorbo is a huge instrument taller than Johan, and he is Swedish. It has two sets of strings: one in the lower range, untouched by the left hand, needing retuning before each item; the other more like the strings of a guitar, worked with both hands. It’s a huge beast, waving about as he plays, enough to endanger any careless passer-by or low-hanging lights. Like most ancient instruments the volume produced is only modest.
Johan explains its origin in the court of Louis XVI, used mainly to accompany singers. He smiles engagingly as he talks; the smile bursts out only rarely as he plays.
We begin with Lully, one of my least favourite composers, then de Visée, the music agreeable but unexciting. Then Bach, arranged by Johan himself, requiring an elaborate retuning. There’s a melancholy that touches my mood.
He switches to the baroque guitar, smaller than a modern one, dwarfed by the huge theorbo. The pieces, by the Spanish composer Sanz, he explains, were written as demos to show how the instrument should be used. The sound is thin, pleasant, with a hint of more familiar Iberian music.
A modern piece comes next, on theorbo. It’s by Cave, a Cornishman who is also a bell ringer. This exploits the instrument to the full, with crashes, pauses, single loud notes, suggestions of pealing bells, evoking a haunted church. It looks incredibly difficult to play.
Finally we come to Kapsberger, who pioneered music for solo theorbo in the 17th century. The pieces, especially the last, ‘Canario’, show the versatility of the instrument.
Johan’s encore is Swedish, from near his hometown. Telling us the piece was also reworked by Stan Getz as ‘Dear Old Sweden’, he’s back to the guitar. It feels like a folk song of homesickness or lost love.
In place of the advertised all-Kapsberger programme, we’ve had a European tour of six countries and a sweep through four centuries of musical history. Johan’s gentle wit and dextrous playing have laid it all before us.
