LF 26: Samrat Majumder Guitar Recital

Holy Trinity Church Haddington 9/9/26

Samrat Majumder guitar

The Coffee Concert recital of the morning of 9th September (and the first in this year’s Lammermuir Festival) was given by Scottish-Indian guitarist Samrat Majumder in Haddington’s Holy Trinity Church. His programme included works for lute by Bach and Dowland, this year being the 400th anniversary of the latter great 17th-century lutenist’s death. Also on the menu was an item appearing as ‘Scottish Lute Manuscripts’. The venue was well-nigh full.

Three Dowland pieces were preceded by a brief, ornate, mellow, flowing Prelude with lovely cantabile phrasing that was to be a constant feature of the recital. ‘A Fancy’ opened in the manner of a pavane but was quite brisk with a con moto bass line ushering the melody forward, The same independent voicing of contrapuntal lines that I find so praiseworthy in the playing of Sean Shibe was evident and became another ever-present feature of the elegant articulation. The ‘Forlorn Hope Fancy’ was in the typically melancholy Dowland character of a chaconne, the ornamentation becoming brisker and more ornate. The contrastingly joyous ‘Fantasia No.7’ was in a major key and madrigal-like, the illusion enhanced by very stylish independent voicing of the lines, the ornamentation increasing in virtuosity and ebullience. Gorgeous.

Mr Majumder introduced J. S. Bach’s ‘Lute Suite No 1 in E minor BWV 996’, saying that it was probably originally written for lautenwerk (the “lute harpsichord”, a keyboard instrument with lute strings). It is very much in the French style, with the dances given their French names. A dramatic Prelude led to an exciting fugal Presto in 3. The Allemande and Courante were typical Bach and reminded me of those in the minor key Cello Suites which I had heard Alisa Weilerstein play in the Usher Hall recently. The slow, lyrical, wistful Sarabande was delicious. The melody of the Bourrée was very familiar and I suspect it is one of Bach’s ‘recycled’ tunes. The concluding Gigue was sprightly, agile and very virtuosic. Super. However many degrees of separation might be imagined by playing a “lute suite”, originally written for lautenwerk, on a guitar, it sounded just right.

Another set of 3 Dowland gems followed, all originally songs. ‘The Earl of Essex Galliard’ combined a light-hearted rhythm in a brisk 3 with a mournful melody to dramatic effect, hinting at the mercurial fortunes of Elizabeth I’s ‘favourite’, more often than not in lethal disfavour. The ‘Lachrimae pavan’ justified its title, a sweetly melancholic Andante. The ‘Frog Galliard’ bowled along in a cheerful 3-in-a-bar, ornate and life-affirming.

Back in March, I had the pleasure of reporting on a recital at the Royal Conservatoire given by guitarist Sean Shibe playing lute with 4 members of the Dunedin Consort, drawing on goodies from the turn of the 17th century in the National Library of Scotland, transcriptions (such as the Panmure Music Books) made by members of wealthy Scottish families of the period. Samrat Majumder drew on another resource, the ‘Rowallan Manuscript’ (original in Edinburgh University Library), selecting 3 Scottish melodies. The first, titled simply ‘A Scots Tune’, was reflective and song-like with irregular phrase lengths and an A-B-A structure. The second, ‘Swit Saint Nikcola’, had a very Renaissance Elizabethan feel. The third, a set of 2 ‘canaries’ (lively dances with a driving bass line) from the ‘Straloch Manuscript’, was a whimsical romp, the melody of the second reminding me of that of the Irish song ‘One-Eyed Reilly’.

Back to Bach. The ‘Lute Suite No 2 in C minor BWV 997’ is very different to the First Suite. Darker, more seriously devout and more Germanic, with a preoccupation with sacrifice, pain and redemption. The Bach of the St Matthew Passion. The anxious troubled Prelude was followed by a Fugue whose subject contained an anguished drop of a minor 7th interval, driven, slightly obsessive and quite superb. The following Sarabande, dark and sorrowful, recalled the chorale from the St Matthew Passion. The concluding Gigue, still in the minor, was light on its feet as if a great weight had been lifted, even more so in the Double, when the same quaver melody switched to fluttering ornate semiquavers. Thrilling and virtuosic.

The last item on the programme was Dowland’s ‘A Dream’, an ornamented rhapsodic reverie in a slowish 3, ranging freely over the compass of the instrument, in a minor key but not at all gloomy. There was a encore, David Russell’s arrangement of ‘Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife’, a beautiful tender melody of great gentleness but no trace of anguish, which reminds me of the music of blind Irish harper, Turlough O’Carolan.

Chatting with a colleague after the recital, we mused over how Samrat Majumder and Sean Shibe have different artistic and stage personas, yet both are equally charismatic and effective communicators. Certainly Samrat Majumder completely captured the hearts of the Haddington audience.

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