A Beautiful Thread - A Review

On the evening of the first of June at St Michael’s Church, Stinsford, commemorating the birth date of Thomas Hardy, there took place an inspirational marriage of words and music, A Beautiful Thread. The actors Lucia Bonbright and Anton Lesser, with musicians from the Orchestra of the Swan led by the violinist and composer David Le Page, directed by Judy Reaves of Hambletts, presented Deidre Shields’ carefully-woven script gleaned from Hardy’s own novels, letters and poetry. The two performances on Sunday were enabled and supported by the Thomas Hardy Society steered by the enthusiasm of Mark Chutter.

The chamber ensemble of instruments, made up of violin, double bass, accordion, harp and flute, created a rich sound world which hovered deftly between the ambience of folk music and the vibrancy and virtuosity of a classical chamber group, creating often a glittering and impressionistic sensuality of timbre. The range of sounds conjured by composer David Le Page in his dedicated score was astonishing in its scope, drawing on the three principal melodic instruments, supported by a subtle gamut of accompanying ‘continuo’ textures from the accordion and harp.

The juxtaposition between music and the spoken word was seamless, and on several occasions the text was enhanced by quiet accompaniment, as at the ‘hangings’ sequence, where Hardy’s description of the two executions he witnessed were related. If the musical content was of necessity cast sometimes in water colour, the actors can be said to have spoken to their audience in the verbal equivalent of oil painting. Anton Lesser created colourful, distinctive voices for Hardy, William Dewey and Gabriel Oak; Lucia Bonbright - in her fine ‘air-blue gown’ - moved effortlessly in accent from portraying Jemima Hardy, Bathsheba Everdene, Tess and Hardy’s two wives, Emma and Florence. ‘Distant voices and still lives’ became vibrant in this dramatic presentation of Hardy’s world.

The choreography of the several scenes possessed a compelling dramatic integrity. We were moved deftly from Hardy’s contrasted worlds of the Greenwood Tree, the Vale of Blackmore, and Oxford towards the more intimate territory of the author’s home life at Max Gate and his later poetry, via The Oxen, The Darkling Thrush, I Look Into My Glass and The Voice. The real world of Hardy’s autobiography kept pace neatly with that of his creative imagination.

The magnificent musicians, led by David Le Page, whose intimately virtuosic violin playing - ‘a nice one ‘tis, and good in tone’ - equally at home as a folk fiddler in the Wassail or The Rowan Tree as in the more classical yet raunchy world of Warlock’s Mattachins, provided a moving aural link with Hardy’s father’s fiddling and, indeed, the author’s own skill on the instrument. Diane Clark as ‘Gabriel’s Flute’ projected a rich and voluptuous tone. On the double bass, the formidable technical ability of Claire Whitson provided a wonderfully firm base or ‘ground’ to the ensemble, including some foot-tapping percussive effects using the body of the instrument as a drum. Miloš Milivojevic and Glenda Allaway supplied subtle, intensely musical support to the solo lines on accordion and harp respectively. The whole instrumental and vocal confection afforded ‘a full-hearted evensong / Of joy illimited.’

Amongst so many high points in A Beautiful Thread, Anton Lesser’s reading of Hardy’s poems The Oxen and I Look into My Glass in particular was supremely moving, as was his instinctive, poignant pacing of the final lines of The Self-Unseeing - ‘Everything glowed with a gleam, . . . . Yet we were looking away.’

For those of us privileged at Stinsford to experience Hambletts’ A Beautiful Thread on the eve of Hardy’s birthday, we not only heard ‘a full-hearted evensong’, but went away - after a standing ovation for the performers - with memories that glowed with a gleam and magic in our eyes.

Colin Howard

Former Director of Music of the Dorchester Choral Society

colinphoward@gmail.com