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No Tricks, Just Treats, from King's Singers
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Ann Arbor News, No Tricks, Just Treats, from King's Singers >>
Vocal ensemble offered classics, and also a little comedy
BY ROGER LELIEVRE
News Arts Writer Anyone who stayed home from Saturday night's concert by the a cappella vocal group The King's Singers because they thought English madrigals and sacred music from Estonia weren't their cup of tea - especially on Halloween weekend - missed a real musical treat.
The six members of The King's Singers took their voices to places the rest of us can only dream of visiting. On the way, they infused their material - much of it far from the mainstream but also including a few contemporary works - with typical British dry humor.
The U.K.-based ensemble - David Hurley (countertenor), Robin Tyson (countertenor), Paul Phoenix (tenor), Philip Lawson (baritone), Christopher Gabbitas (baritone) and Stephen Connolly (bass) - performed in Hill Auditorium under University Musical Society auspices. The first half of their program included a variety of short classical works such as Thomas Morley's "Fire Fire My Heart'' and four psalms from Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek. The second part began with two works commissioned for the ensemble, Jackson Hill's "Remembered Love, Unforgotten Dreams'' and "Handmade Proverbs'' by Toru Takemitsu.
They performed sans amplification, not that any was needed, especially in Hill. Every vocal nuance was crystal-clear. Harmony and intonation were spot on, and the singing started and stopped on a dime, which is not as easy to pull off as it sounds. Informative, often funny, between-song commentary helped tell the tale behind the songs, and in one piece - Mateo Flecha's "La bomba,'' the story of a shipwreck and rescue at sea - a little pantomime went a long way toward understanding the musical story.
The second half of the evening concluded with the lovely Hoagy Carmichael tribute "Lazy Bones''/''Up a Lazy River,'' Billy Joel's "She's Always a Woman,'' and a stunning version of Manhattan Transfer's "Chanson d'Amour,'' all of which were well-recieved by an audience that included more younger faces than one might have predicted. An unexpected treat was their tuneful, yet at the same time visually hysterical rendition of the Alabama song "If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You've Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band),'' during which the singers mimed as if in a jug band and broke into a short square dance at the end.
The U-M's all-male a cappella group The Gentlemen also stopped by for two numbers, "Angel,'' written by U.K. pop star Robbie Williams, and the U-M alma mater song "The Yellow and Blue.''
In short, the show was superb. But why take my word for it? Taylor Johnston from Lansing, himself a countertenor, was clearly pleased he made the drive to Ann Arbor. "In physics, they use the term 'harmonic conversion.' That's perfect for these guys,'' he said.
A group of U-M musical theater students was also delighted. "I feel like these guys could do what (popular U.S. a cappella group) Rockappella does, but Rockapella couldn't do what these guys do,'' offered Derek Krantz, from Charlotte, N.C. 10/31/05 >> go there
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