Joby Talbot and guests

In the first half of Joby Talbot Portrait there was one especially striking piece, played on an instrument that I, in my ignorance, had never laid eyes upon before that fateful evening - an electric cello. The chap playing it, Phillip Sheppard, looked like he was rubbing sticks together to make fire, but my goodness what a sound. I decided then and there that I simply must have one; fire indeed!

Much of the audience by this point looked bemused, trying to grasp what was going on. By the second part, when a selection of drawings appeared as backdrops to the musical setting (courtesy of Joby's wife, although further connections between these and the music were not easy to see), familiar faces were appearing. Hilary Summers, the delightful and particularly statuesque mezzo responsible for the backing vocals on much of The Divine Comedy's last album Fin de Siecle, was singing original pieces and cover versions and later accompanied Hannon for several songs.

Someone, from A Short Album About Love, was Hannon's first contribution to the evening. The diminuitive Ulsterman appeared in casual dress (what happened to the suits?!), mesmerising all with the sheer impossibility that such a huge voice could emerge from such a tiny frame. Hannon's work appeared throughout the show from then on, as did his collaboration with Talbot, The Certainty of Chance, which sounded (as one would expect!) rather different as a guitar/piano/vocals piece from its Fin de Siecle recording with full orchestral arrangement. Neptune's Daughter once again featured the astonishing Ms Summers to spellbinding effect. But this was ultimately Talbot's evening, despite the quality of the musicians with whom he had surrounded himself.

Some of his more peculiar choices of music included a piece about someone's mother's wooden leg, sung deadpan by Ms Summers and soprano Mary Weingold, whose husband was conducting proceedings. Hannon and Summers were reunited to sing a piece from a German operetta - in German. Ms Summers, it is fair to say, managed the feat with some aplomb, while Hannon appeared not to have the faintest idea what he was singing about; all of which was fine, because neither did we, but it was all fun in any case.

For several people the highlight of the evening was a wonderful cover version of Moon River by Hannon and Talbot; for Hannon the highlight seemed to be Let's Do It, at the end of which he jumped fully into the air and struck a pose I'd hitherto doubted he'd ever manifest. Talbot initially seemed ill at ease with being the main man, perhaps unsure of the audience reaction which took some time to come to terms with what it was hearing, but soon seemed to enjoy himself, even during an overly long segment featuring, of all people, Michael Nyman.

In reality, we were to discover, there was very little to choose between the sections of the evening - it was one overly long concert rather than three shorter ones. At least for the first two, Joby explained the difference thus; "first a programme of the music I'd most like to hear and second, some of my favourite performers". The players in both were largely the same, save for the appearances of Rob Farrer, Stuart "Pinkie" Bates and Michael Nyman in the Neil Hannon section.

That said, this was not what you'd get at a classical concert; nor was it what you'd expect at a Divine Comedy gig. A perfect crossover of contemporary classical pop, perhaps, but I couldn't help feeling that classical buffs in the audience loved what they heard, while most of the Divine Comedy nutters would have preferred a full band version of Tonight We Fly.

At the end of the evening it didn't matter - those initially bewildered seemed to find their bearings and everyone seemed to have taken away an appreciation of music in its purest sense which perhaps would not have been the case had the performance been in any way different.

Tweet Comments