Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement

 
 
Thursday, 8th January 2009

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the n/a site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

The Duke does it again at inspired Empire gig



Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 24 August 2007
This week has been a rather special one for fans of Duke Special.

The local troubadour has played five consecutive nights in The Empire Music Hall, each night with a different theme.
On Wednesday evening he performed with the St George's Singers in a special concert entitled A Symphony of Songs.
Dividing his ti
me between the stage and performing with his band and then huddled at a piano in the middle of the floor with the choir behind him and the audience all around him, Peter Wilson and company created an evening of intimacy and delight.
No stranger to experimentation, Duke Special's music is the sort that lends itself so well to reinvention.
Already calling upon an eclectic array of influences, including everything from vaudeville extravagance to chamber pop, this week's series of concerts only serves to enhance his reputation for creating heartfelt, quirky and completely original songs.
The collaboration with the Belfast-based choir was the kind of master-stoke of inspiration and daring we've come to expect from The Duke.
Members of St George's Singers, a choir specialising in choral works from the Baroque and Classical periods, were instantly at home vocalising and enriching an already vibrant set-list.
They may go some way to breaking down barriers of preconceived notions and introducing a whole new audience to the pleasures of choral concerts.
While Wilson played out rich and soulful songs such as Portrait and Freewheel, the choir would build layers upon layers of spine-tingling harmonies, culminating in a cacophony of Danny Elfman-esque exuberance.
Supported by fellow pianist Aqualung, aka singer/songwriter Matt Hales, with his curiously beautiful compositions and lauded rendition of Somebody to Love and the eccentric and wonderful Factotum Choir, the evening was awash with inventive, rousing, touching and playful performances all round.
It was when Duke Special was cosying-up to his island of a piano though, in a sea of adoring listeners, flanked by Saint George's singers, that something really special unfolded.
Those present knew they were witnessing an ever ascending, yet incredibly candid star, worthy of all the praise bestowed upon him.

James Gracey



The full article contains 363 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 24 August 2007 11:55 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Belfast
 
 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.