Byline: Kenneth Walton
RSNO CHRISTMAS CONCERT ****
GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL
PUTTING on Christmas concerts presents a delicate balancing act. How do you counter the wish to be fresh and creative with audience expectations of the routine? Enter Christopher Bell with his outrageous gold sparkling shoes and Irish blarney that places him on the safe side of Graham Norton and the naughty side of Daniel O'Donnell.
Prada Bags ReplicaBell conducted the RSNO and its Chorus in a programme that was essentially formulaic. The central moment was the perennial rolling out of Howard Blake's The Snowman, complete Replica Gucci Tote Handbags with animated film, treble soloist (Walking in the Air) and celebrity narrator Tom Conti.
It was a slick performance, Conti's delivery a little characteristically dry perhaps, but Alasdair Robertson singing the hit song with confidence and pristine intonation.
Everything else was a comfort blanket for the season - audience participation in The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Hark the Herald; orchestral stocking fillers such as Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride and Emile Waldteufel's Skaters' Waltz; and a choral medley that revealed the common author of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree to be the Jewish Johnny Marks.
It could all have been unremarkably routine had Bell not injected his own bubbly personality into the entire evening. He joked, he danced, he sang, he cajoled us into participation. His sense of fun spread infectiously through the orchestra (the second violin section dressed up as a self-contained nativity
embroidered patches cast, sheep included) and out to an appreciating capacity audience. A seasonal knock-out.
Other articles:
http://www.556700.com/Blog/View/?44
http://www.deeprealm.com/blog/view/id_6825/title_Taking-steps-to-beat-recession/