Cantabile – The London Quartet
March 3rd, 2009
CLACTON & NORTH EAST ESSEX ARTS & LITERARY SOCIETY
The final presentation in the Society’s 2008/2009 Season was a return visit from the superb vocal group – Cantabile – The London Quartet. This a cappella singing group have achieved proficiency in producing different styles of music. The result was an eclectic programme which transported the audience from Sixteenth Century Part-Songs to a medley from that classic Disney cartoon ‘Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs’.
Cantabile comprise Richard Bryan (Counter-Tenor), Steven Brooks (Tenor), Mark Fleming (Tenor) and Michael Steffan (Baritone), who first sang as an a cappella singing group during their student days at Cambridge. They began with Perpetuum Mobile Opus 25 by Johann Strauss (The Younger).This musical joke served as a showcase for the vocal dexterity that the group possess. The mood changed for their rendition of Weep O Mine Eyes, a plaintive 16th Century Part Song and which produced a rich choral sound belying their quartet composition. My personal highlight of the first half was the performance of Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess This moving aria written by Gershwin, in his own style of Afro-American spiritual, was faultless. Richard Bryan’s singing evoked the feeling of the southern American cotton plantations.
The second half opened with a ‘Homage to Harmony Groups’. The group’s arrangement of Dry Bones was a brilliant amalgam of music and comedy which exemplified their versatility and was immensely appreciated by the audience. The piece de resistance of this half was without doubt ‘The History of Western Music’- a whistle stop tour of one thousand years of Western Music. Their inclusion of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 was innovative and they achieved a chilling rendition of this tone poem which has been so engrained in recent popular culture by Stanley Kubrick’s use of it as the main theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Once again Cantabile brought to the Society an evening of innovative musical entertainment underlining their virtuosity and creativity. An enormously enjoyable performance from this talented and personable quartet.
The evening was sponsored by Boydons Estate Agents of Colchester & Frinton-On-Sea.
Robert Pearce
Locum Press Officer
Posted in Performances
