This was a journey into the darkest of the night, lit by brilliant wit, fuelled by a perfect bonding of voice and instruments to illuminate this crepuscular programme with a refulgent burning urgency. Vache Baroque offered redemptive bliss, and we left all the better for it.
There's something gloriously appropriate about hearing Oscar Wilde's words from a prison cell echoing through a Brighton church on a night when the pews are filled with enthusiasts who understand exactly what it means to live authentically in a world that punishes difference. Out of the Deep explored the spiritual depth and expressive beauty of Wilde's letter written in his prison cell—a document that transforms suffering into art with the kind of alchemy only Wilde could manage.
Renowned for his writing but also for the scandal that brought him down, Wilde was a complex and multi-layered personality, but was above all else a sensualist who lived for life. The music in this programme echoed and reflected the impact of his imprisonment and the reflections that he chose to make to endure his unjust punishment. Yet deep, deep down, Oscar is deliciously shallow—and thank goodness for it. His refusal to be beaten down by Victorian hypocrisy, his insistence on beauty even in the depths, is what makes his voice still resonate so powerfully with our community today.
The concert drew an enthusiastic crowd, the church humming with anticipation. Vache Baroque were on fine form, their lower registers particularly sumptuous in St Martin's rococo acoustic which also turbo charged the soaring counter tenor and soprano voices. The ensemble conjured a well-focused, transportive sound—viola and viola da gamba providing bold yet fragile counterpoint, oboes threading elegant lines through the texture, all anchored by the rich foundation of theorbo and organ. While some of the smaller vocal groups lost a touch of clarity, this was St Martin's generous acoustic softening their delicacy rather than any shortcoming in the singing itself.
The 2025 James Bowman Young Artists were superb, with some sublime singing and playing which allowed a freshness of approach to this well-loved music. Their youthful energy brought new life to these baroque works, reminding us that this music was once as radical and boundary-pushing as Wilde himself.
Vache Baroque are a group of professional musicians intent on connecting a younger and more diverse range of people to the power of high-quality Baroque-era music and drama, tonight they wove magic from ancient music, Queer persecution, eloquent humility and contemporary presentation.
But there was an extra frisson of exquisite decadent delight to have the deliciously purple prose of Oscar being decanted and reclaimed from the pulpit by Malcolm Sinclair, whose perfect timbre not only gave emotional depth to Wilde's sincerest writing, but whose cadences flowed around the church. He was preaching to the converted tonight, and my elegant Irish companion—a most witty and naughty man himself—took delight in how Wilde himself may have found the ironic humour in those words coming from that overwrought dais. BREMF do juxtaposition really well, and tonight they rose, with Vache Baroque, into the ethereal vaults of perfect irony.
A high point was the perfect, emotionally wrenching rendition of Bach's Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord). When the music stopped , the audience took a breath together. There were a few damp cheeks around me, including mine. In that moment, Bach's Lutheran cry from the depths became Wilde's De Profundis, became every queer person's experience of being cast into darkness and refusing to let that darkness win.
This was a journey into the darkest of the night, but lit by the most brilliant wit, and fuelled by a perfect bonding of voice and instruments combining to illuminate this crepuscular programme with a refulgent burning urgency. The music, like Wilde himself, refusing to dim even under gross unjust duress, but reaching to find meaning in the act of being present in life. BREMF often delights; tonight Vache Baroque offered redemptive bliss, and we left all the better for it.
See the full programme of music and artists.
BREMF continues its run of programming—see full details of upcoming concerts on their website.
Out of the Deep reminded us that beauty is resistance, that art endures, and that those who tried to silence voices like Wilde's have lost to history. We're still here, still listening, still celebrating. And that particular church has never heard better preaching.
