27 May 2022

Across oceans

The program was entitled From Berlin to New York : Popular songs of the early 20th Century so I expected jazz and we got that but I hadn't thought of cabaret although it was obvious enough.  Especially with composers with surnames Schultze and Siegel and most obviously Kurt Weill.  So it was varied.  Hilda provided accompaniment for two women singers, Madeline and Maike and they were different voices for the different selections.  Madeline is a soprano trained locally and did wonderful renditions of early jazz numbers.  I don't always like the operatic takes on jazz but this worked nicely on songs like Danny Boy and Misty and Summertime and an end with that lovely Richard Rogers Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.  It's still on my mind next day.  Maike is an alto trained in Europe but also locally and this was different. Firstly, in German, so accompanied by descriptions of the themes of lost loves and jilted women and feisty ladies, always with the performance presence which is cabaret.  SO very different but all a pleasure.  What an unlikely and diverse Wesley concert!

Hilda Visser-Scott (piano) accompanied Madeline Anderson (soprano) and Maike Brill (alto) singing early US jazz and German cabaret at Wesley.

No comments: