MUSIC by Gounod, Debussy and Mendelssohn may seem unlikely material for four trombones but this highly accomplished all-female quartet demonstrated it was not in their Shakespeare-inspired concert.
The only thing that didn't really come off was So in Love from Porter's Kiss Me Kate, otherwise technical brilliance, virtuosity and stylish musicianship conquered all.
The tonal variety and pliancy of musical line produced by three tenor trombone
s and one bass trombone was quite astonishing at times.
The four items from Gounod's Romeo and Juliet judiciously avoided outright vocal items and were highly persuasive because of the attributes mentioned, as was Four Songs from Romeo and Juliet, an original four-trombone work by Tim Jackson.
So, too, three extracts from Bernstein's West Side Story which couldn't avoid vocal items, but they worked much better than the Cole Porter number.
Four pieces from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream music, including the Nocturne, came off well as did, more obviously, Debussy's Fanfare for King Lear and, less obviously, a rather lovely Touch her Soft Lips and Part from Walton's Henry V music.
Jason Carr's Poem Unlimited, an original work after Hamlet, proved to be an enjoyable jazz-inflected piece, heralding Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder and John Dankworth/ Cleo Laine's If Music Be the Food of Love, both from celebrated Shakespeare jazz albums.
An encore, Gee, Officer Krupke (West Side Story) was deliciously rhythmic and lost nothing in 'translation' – indeed, could almost be said to have gained from it.
MORE:
Listings Guide
Arts GuideFilm GuideTheatre and EventsMusic GuideFront RoomFilm TrailersThe full article contains 267 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
