REVIEWS: Annie, City Hall
IF you get the right ones as Manor Operatic Society has, the kids steal the show in this musical, not least Pippa Crossland as Annie, in an entirely assured, remarkable performance for one so young.
There are eye-catching turns in the 'blue team' of her fellow orphans, too, especially Molly – Maddie Fletcher.
Alex McVeigh runs them close as an entirely believable Miss Hannigan, a gamble in casting the role with a man that pays handsome dividends in another remarkable performance.
You would be hard put to find a better account of the Easy Street trio of Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily St Regis – Gary Rossiter and Hollie Denton and both excellent – on the professional stage.
Keeley Kilby gives a professional performance as Grace Farrell and Bob Spink is a first-rate Daddy Warbucks.
The ensemble scenes and sets are splendid and Richard Bradford's direction, ably assisted by Linda Kelly, is balanced with an eye for detail. A word of praise, too, for Andy Collis' excellent band.
On the evidence of seeing a rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, the alternating Annie, Isabelle Sykes, and the pink team of orphans are just as good and assured too.
Bernard Lee
Doric Quartet
Crucible Studio
WITH Bartholomew LaFollette sitting in, the Doric marvellously captured all the nobility and range of emotions that Schubert poured into his immortal String Quintet.
The exquisite second theme of the first movement emerged magically each time it appeared and the sublimely dolorous adagio was a timeless thing of spiritual beauty.
The trio of the bracing scherzo took on tragic nobility and the rollicking finale could not have ended more rumbustiously.
Earlier the Doric toned down the superb sonority of sound at their disposal for beautifully mellow, warm account of Haydn's Op 76 No 1 quartet, which had impeccable balance and cohesion.
Much the same applied to the following Beethoven Op 18 No 4, although it had a suitably bigger sound, with the Doric's finely-tuned inner virtuosity always at the service of the music.
BL
Brahms German Requiem
City Hall
EWA Strusinska gave the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus two thumbs up at the end of the Brahms. She obviously heard it better than these ears did!
Were they the only ones among an enthusiastically applauding audience that struggled to hear the quiet singing, which needed stronger projection, not to mention blanket inaudibility of words? – also applicable to the soloists, Amy Freston and David Stout, although both sang well enough.
The chorus did indeed sound magnificent when letting rip with admirable unanimity – we'll overlook the fugal end of the fourth movement, while the small ranks of tenors (all too evident at times) performed heroics to contribute to the excellent balance when it could be heard.
Strusinska is a fine conductor with solid musical grounding, the work avoiding the Teutonic heaviness that can afflict it, while in a clean textured account of Beethoven's First Symphony she wasn't afraid to point up its Mozartian elements.
BL
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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