Alison Bury

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Alison Bury (born 20 January 1954) is a British violinist who works as a soloist, orchestra leader and chamber musician, specialising in historically informed performances of Baroque music, especially works by J. S. Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. Her teachers include Francis Baines, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sándor Végh. She was the leader of the English Baroque Soloists (1983–2008) and a co-leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, of which she was a founding member in 1986, and was also a member of several other well-known period-music ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music (1975–90), the Taverner Players (1976–92) and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (1980–86).

Contents

Early life and education

Bury was born 20 January 1954 in Woking, Surrey. She attended the Royal College of Music, where she was taught violin by Sylvia Rosenberg and Jaroslav Vanáček. There she studied Baroque performance practice with Francis Baines, with whom she also worked on the viol. [1] In 1976 she won a Boise Scholarship [2] and a Countess of Munster Award, which she used to go to Salzburg in Austria (1976–7), where she worked on violin with the chamber music specialist Sándor Végh and on Baroque performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. [1]

Career

Bury has been part of several ensembles that specialise in historically informed performances of Baroque music, including Concentus Musicus Wien (1970s), Academy of Ancient Music (1975–90), Taverner Players (1976–92), Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra (1978–80), Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (1980–86), Raglan Baroque Players (from 1980) and the English Baroque Soloists (from 1979), [1] and was a founding member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) in 1986. [3] She led the English Baroque Soloists (1983–2008 [4] ) and shared the leadership of the OAE (from 1986). She also directed the Baroque Orchestra of the Royal College of Music. [1] In a 2004 interview with The Strad magazine, Bury described the role of the leader at OAE as "primarily... a musical one", describing how she marks bowings on the score, assigns violinists to positions, and mediates between the players and the conductor. [5]

She gave solo concerto performances with the Academy of Ancient Music and the OAE, mainly at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and also on tour in Canada and the United States. With the Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Christopher Hogwood, her solos include Telemann's Concerto in C for four violins (1981), [6] a concerto from Vivaldi's Op. 8 (1982), [7] Vivaldi's E major concerto (Op. 3, no. 12) (1986), [8] Vivaldi's A major Concerto (Op. 3, no. 5) with Catherine Mackintosh at the Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto (1986), [9] and "Autumn" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Orchestra Hall, Chicago and the Performing Arts Center Playhouse, Tampa, Florida (1987). [10] [11] Her solo performances with the OAE and its chamber ensemble include Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 (1987), [12] Bach's Concerto in C major for three violins with Elizabeth Wallfisch and Mackintosh (1996), [13] Francesco Geminiani's orchestration of Corelli's La Follia violin sonata (1997), [14] Vivaldi's Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Cello with Lucy Howard and David Watkin at the Carnegie Hall, New York (2002), [15] Vivaldi's Concerto Grosso, Op. 3, No. 11 at the Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto (2002), [16] one of Handel's Concerto Grossi at the Royal Festival Hall (2013), [17] and Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Margaret Faultless (2014). [18] She also performed Vivaldi's B minor concerto for four violins at a concert in memory of the oboist David Reichenberg at St James's in London (1988). [19]

As the co-leader of the OAE, she directed extracts from Handel's Saul and Solomon oratorios with the countertenor Andreas Scholl, on a UK tour in 2000, [20] [21] [22] as well as operatic and orchestral works by Vivaldi, Riccardo Broschi, Gluck and C. P. E. Bach with the soprano Cecilia Bartoli at the Carnegie Hall, New York, in 2002. [15]

As a chamber musician, she has been in the Ruckers Harpsichord Ensemble (1975), [23] Chandos Baroque Players (1981–9), L'École d'Orphée (1982–9) and the Geminiani Trio (1983–90). [1] She taught at the Royal College of Music. [1]

By 2022, Bury had retired from OAE, [3] and as of 2025 is leading The Baroque Collective. [24]

Style and reception

Lucy Robinson, in her Grove Music Online entry, highlights Bury's "beautiful open sound and sensitive phrasing" and writes that she is "highly respected" for her chamber work. [1] Nicholas Kenyon, in a Times review of a solo performance of Vivaldi in 1982, criticises some technical aspects of her delivery but writes that Bury gives "each phrase a highly original twist, as if its rhetoric, purpose and direction had been rethought". [7] Erica Jeal, writing in The Guardian in 2002, describes her playing as "deliciously crisp". [25] Robert Everett-Green, in a review for The Globe and Mail , describes her performance of a Vivaldi concerto in 2002 as "clean yet humdrum" and suggests that Bury might be a "better leader than soloist". [16]

David Fallows, writing in The Guardian in 2000, describes her as "marvellously musical" as a director and leader. [20] Alfred Hickling, also in The Guardian, describes her direction as having "almost imperceptible authority". [21]

Bury is considered to fall within the second generation of violinists performing in a historically informed manner, becoming active in the 1970s and 1980s, with Pavlo Beznosiuk,Micaela Comberti, John Holloway, Monica Huggett, Catherine Mackintosh, Ingrid Seifert, Simon Standage, Elizabeth Wallfisch and others. [26]

Recordings

Her recordings as a soloist include Vivaldi's Four Seasons with both the Academy of Ancient Music and the Taverner Players, [1] as well as Vivaldi's Concerto No. 6, Il Piacere , with the Academy of Ancient Music. [27] Nicholas Anderson, in a Gramophone review of the Taverner Players' recording of the Four Seasons, praises Bury's ornamentation in the slow movement of the "Summer" concerto. [28]

She also recorded J. S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins twice, with Monica Huggett and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and with Elizabeth Wallfisch and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. [1] Joseph McLellan recommends the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra recording with Huggett in The Washington Post as an "idiomatic and well-played" period-instrument version. [29] Timothy Day describes the version with Wallfisch as having a "gentle lilt" and minimal vibrato in the slow movement. [30] Bury directed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 for a 1989 recording of the set with OAE, which Allan Kozinn, in a review for The New York Times , considers one of the more successful concertos of the set. [31]

As a chamber musician, Bury recorded Handel's Trio Sonatas for two violins with John Holloway of L'École d'Orphée (1985), [32] and Corelli's Trio Sonatas for two violins with Huggett. A reviewer of the latter for Gramophone considers Bury to make a "deft" second violin, but comments that "her playing is not so sensuously charged" at that of Huggett. [33]

Personal life

Bury is married to Richard Earle, an oboist with OAE. [4] [34] As of 2024, she lives in Lewes, East Sussex. [4]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Lucy Robinson (2001). Bury, Alison (Margaret). Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press) doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.53208
  2. ↑ Music awards. The Times (59693), p. 16 (1 May 1976)
  3. 1 2 East Sussex Bach Choir in concert. Sussex Express (8 April 2022)
  4. 1 2 3 Brighton Early Music Festival 2024, Brighton Early Music Festival (accessed 14 January 2025)
  5. ↑ Laurinel Owen (13 September 2017 [February 2004]). What makes a concertmaster special? The Strad
  6. ↑ Stephen Pettitt (1981). Recitals. The Musical Times 122 (1662): 546–47 JSTOR   964174
  7. 1 2 Nicholas Kenyon (18 November 1982). Academy of Ancient Music/Hogwood. The Times (61392), p. 9
  8. ↑ Stephen Pettitt (29 January 1986). Academy of Ancient Music. The Times (62356), p. 14
  9. ↑ William Littler (28 November 1986). English ensemble's Vivaldi too brisk. Toronto Star , p. D26
  10. ↑ Howard Reich (22 October 1987). Hogwood again displays his strong appeal. Chicago Tribune , p. 12
  11. ↑ Michael Fleming (21 October 1987). Early music arrives in Tampa Bay Series: music review. St. Petersburg Times , p. 2D
  12. ↑ Hilary Finch (18 November 1987). Enlightenment Chamber Ensemble. The Times (62929), p. 20
  13. ↑ Hilary Finch (5 April 1996). A fine score draw. The Times (65546), p. 33
  14. ↑ Hilary Finch (16 January 1997). Musical banquet for the old ham. The Times (65788), p. 31
  15. 1 2 Allan Kozinn (10 October 2002). Reviving Jolt for the Baroque. The New York Times , p. E8
  16. 1 2 Robert Everett-Green (3 October 2002). Bartoli tears through bravura performance. The Globe and Mail , p. R4
  17. ↑ Richard Morrison (5 June 2013). Concert: OAE/Christie. The Times (70903), p. 74
  18. ↑ Ivan Hewett (26 March 2014). Sigiswald Kuijken / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Queen Elizabeth Hall, review. The Daily Telegraph
  19. ↑ Stephen Pettitt (20 January 1988). A splendid mix. The Times , p. 14
  20. 1 2 David Fallows (7 October 2000). Classical: OAE/Scholl: Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (mediocre). The Guardian , p. 21
  21. 1 2 Alfred Hickling (3 June 2008). Reviews: Classical: OAE/Scholl Sage, Gateshead 5/5.  The Guardian , p. 34
  22. ↑ Kenneth Walton (9 October 2000). Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Andreas Scholl. The Scotsman , p. 15
  23. ↑ Activities: The Ruckers Harpsichord Ensemble. Early Music 3 (1): 69 (1975) JSTOR   3125314
  24. ↑ Alison Bury – Director, The Baroque Collective (accessed 13 January 2025)
  25. ↑ Erica Jeal (12 April 2002). Reviews: Classical: Alkan's new champion: OAE/Alessandrini: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 4/5. The Guardian , p. 16
  26. ↑ Stowell, p. 5
  27. ↑ Daniel Webster (22 January 1984). Definitive Vivaldi, definitively played. The Philadelphia Inquirer , p. H7
  28. ↑ Nicholas Anderson (December 1991). Vivaldi Concertos. Gramophone
  29. ↑ Joseph McLellan (24 January 1988). The Ageless Amadeus; For Mozart's 232nd, A Stellar Sampler. The Washington Post , p. g1
  30. ↑ Day, p. 151
  31. ↑ Allan Kozinn (29 October 1989). Soundings; In Bach, Enlightenment Without Illumination. The New York Times , p. A34
  32. ↑ Rosemary Roberts (1987). Review: The Complete Violin Sonatas; Two Trio Sonatas for Two Violins; Trio Sonata for Two Flutes; Recorder Sonata; Ouverture for Two Clarinets and Horn by George Frideric Handel, L'École d'Orphée, John Holloway, Alison Bury, Philip Pickett, Stephen Preston, Lisa Beznosiuk, Colin Lawson, Roger Heaton, John Hadden, Susan Sheppard and Lucy Carolan; Trio Sonatas by George Frideric Handel, The English Concert, Simon Standage, Micaela Comberti, Lisa Beznosiuk, Anthony Pleeth and Trevor Pinnock; German Arias; Violin Sonata Op.1 No.12 by George Frideric Handel, Emma Kirkby, London Baroque, Ingrid Seifert, Charles Medlam and John Tol. Early Music 15 (1): 135–36 JSTOR   3137660
  33. ↑ Corelli: Trio Sonatas. Gramophone (July 1988)
  34. ↑ Alison Bury: Speed Interview, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (3 June 2011) (accessed 13 January 2025)
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