Gustav Leonhardt @ King's Lynn Town Hall

Gustav Leonhardt @ King's Lynn Town Hall

By ALISON CROOSE

What finer way to appreciate music from the baroque era than through the skills of this world-famous harpsichord player in a concert that offered a taste of the delights to be enjoyed at the coming King's Lynn Festival.

The appreciative audience was absorbed by the performance.

Mr Leonhardt's programme surveyed the highly-ornamental works which led to music taking the term originally used to describe decorative architecture.

The music represented the differing styles used to display players' virtuosity. From toccatas by Reincken and Kerll to a suite by Georg Bohm, whose works greatly influenced J S Bach, Leonhardt displayed the consummate skill that has earned him his reputation.

Henry Purcell featured prominently for his major contribution to English baroque and two of his suites for harpsichord were especially lively examples incorporating a series of dances.

J S Bach represented the culmination of the baroque style and his fantasias, probably written when he was a teenager, feature a free-ranging style of improvisation.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's career was overshadowed by his father but Leonhardt was suffienctly impressed by his work to include two particularly interesting polonaises.