Halifax Philharmonic Club:
Red Priest

Red Priest

Red Priest is one of the major success stories on the international early music scene today. Named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, this extraordinary English ensemble has redefined the art of baroque music performance, combining the fruits of extensive research with swashbuckling virtuosity, creative re-composition, heart-on-sleeve emotion and compelling stagecraft. The group performs largely from memory, allowing an operatic level of freedom and interaction, and its programs are drawn from myriad baroque sources to create a kaleidoscopic range of moods and colours. International music critics have described the Red Priest style as 'electrifying', 'immaculately forged', 'sonically supercharged', 'deliciously twisted' but the group's extravagantly baroque ethos is perhaps best summed up in the words of English musicologist and broadcaster George Pratt: If nobody goes over the top, how will we know what lies on the other side?