Classical review: Mark Padmore, Kilkenny Arts Festival

In the midst of this year’s Mozart immersion, Kilkenny Arts continued with a thread of Bach from last year’s festival. Internationally renowned tenor Mark Padmore joined Camerata Kilkenny in the apt setting of St Canice’s Cathedral for an evening of arias and instrumental works.

Bach’s sacred cantatas, based on Lutheran texts, are sombre and beautiful meditations on solemn themes of death and redemption. The highlight of the programme was cantata 82, Ich Habe Genug, more usually associated with a bass voice.