# Dunford and Langlois de Swarte bring playful flair to baroque music

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-mad-lover-review-eccentric-charm-and-baroque-brilliance-as-duo-move-from-eccles-to-indiana-jones/
- Published: 2026-10-29T16:22:59+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-29T17:17:49+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/29/the-mad-lover-review-smith-square-hall-london-thomas-dunford
- Topics: Art, Asia, Culture, Entertainment, Music, World

## Key points

- Dunford and Langlois de Swarte brought *The Mad Lover* to London.
- Their baroque programme mixed virtuosity, improvisation and humour.
- Audience singing to *Blackbird* provided the concert’s closing moment.

## Summary

Lutenist Thomas Dunford and violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte gave their first London performance of *The Mad Lover*, a programme of 17th-century music and improvisation. Part of the London Festival of Baroque Music, the concert combined playful spontaneity with precise playing, and showed the duo’s evident rapport.

The 75-minute programme included works by John Eccles, Daniel Purcell and the two Nicola Matteises, alongside Dunford’s improvisations and comic musical references to Indiana Jones and Radiohead. When a lute string came loose, Dunford carried on so smoothly it was barely noticeable. The musicians ended by inviting the audience to sing along to a Bach-inspired arrangement of the Beatles’ *Blackbird*; the festival’s Smith Square Hall will now close for two years of refurbishment.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.