Ed Billingham

Buxton Fringe Review! Buxton Festival Fringe https://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/reviews2024mus.html#3595 Virtuoso guitarist Ed Billingham makes welcome return to the Fringe producing a delightful breath of cultural air, sandwiched between the televised finals of Wimbledon men’s and Euro football championships. The acoustic properties of the Burbage Institute are ideal to appreciate the subtleties of solo guitar; however the big leap is to find an artiste who can make the nuances of the instrument come alive. Ed is just the man to engage the audience for an hour of contrasting music showcasing the beauty and versatility of the classical guitar. Ed kicked off with the emotive and popular film theme by Stanley Meyers, ‘Cavatina’. It was evident after a few bars that we were hearing a master in action. After the warm up, we heard the ‘Suite Popular Brazilian’ by Heitor Villa-Lobos, originally conceived in 1914, demonstrating in four movements the many sound colours of the instrument. Well into his stride in the recital, Ed’s apparently effortless finger work clearly belies a level of control born of a few thousand hours of practice. Vivaldi’s ‘ l’estro armonico op3 no9’ is a lovely piece but takes no prisoners; a few wrong notes can derail the whole thing. In the arrangement by John Williams, one of Ed’s heroes, Ed not only kept the flow firmly on track but was firmly in the driving seat, capturing the beautiful melodic slower sections. The last movement is a piece of cleverly constructed baroque writing in which each bar fits like a jigsaw into the next; no safety net for Ed in this one ….as if he ever needed one! Maybe there was an internal sigh of relief at the end, but it didn’t show. We heard some more familiar melodies in the selection of Grieg Norwegian folk songs lending variety to the programme and an opportunity for Ed to display a few more aspects of finger technique. With a suite from the Spanish tradition by Albeniz, Ed tastefully demonstrated yet another aspect of the guitar repertoire. On the last movement ‘Sevilla’, a piece often hijacked by cameos designed to evoke the popular tourists’ image of Spain, Ed managed to give it an elevated musical sophistication. As well as being a skilled interpreter of the guitar's potential, Ed reaches out as an effective communicator and as an ambassador for the instrument. In Ed’s hands the inevitable challenges in playing the guitar become a joyful aspiration for others. He is able to bring out the range of tone and voicing of the guitar as a musical medium for all occasions. I expect he would also be an inspiring teacher. We look forward to looking out for Ed Billington in the future, here at the Fringe and elsewhere on the concert platform or in a chamber setting. Brian K W Lightowler