The Australian String Quartet with singer Fiona Campbell wowed Hedland
The Australian String Quartet pulled at Hedland’s heartstrings last week in a gorgeous performance, “ASQ Amped Up with Fiona Campbell” at the Matt Dann Cultural Centre, where eclectic classical was followed by inspiring takes on pop music.
A popular audience choice in the first half of the evening was French composer Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan” – Le Cygne – from his musical suite, “The Carnival of the Animals”.
The elegance of this was followed by a Ravel piece one might easily have called “Sandflies on steroids”, throughout which, by classical standards, the performers went a bit wild and crazy on the strings.
Rock chick met classy classical in the second half of the evening, as mezzo soprano singer Fiona Campbell took to the stage with the quartet to perform everything from Britney Spears’ hit “Toxic”, arranged as a sultry tango, to The Cure’s “The Love Cats”.
“Somewhere over the rainbow” took on a calypso lilt and “Video killed the radio star” had the audience singing “Owwa-owwa” in the stalls.
Arguably most powerful were arrangements of Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time”, in which the verses melted into a river of harmonising strings, plus a moving performance of Kate Miller-Heidke’s “The Last Day on Earth”.
A definite highlight also, with its steady build up of deceptively simple yet profound lyrics, was Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees”, performed with spine chilling beauty by the ensemble (and dedicated by Campbell to her brother in the audience).
Fiona Campbell and the Australian String Quartet were grateful to be given the opportunity by BHP to visit the Pilbara, having just performed in Newman as well.
During the day they’d spent time at the high school working with year 8-10 music students and quartet cellist Rachel Johnston said that what made remote places like Port Hedland a particular joy was seeing people of all ages, notably children, so engaged.
“The kids were great and asked a lot of questions,” she said.
Interestingly, Ms Johnston also made the point that children here often respond better to the music than the city kids.
What is certain is that plenty of the adults and children who said they loved the show had no former exposure to classical music.
In the words of young Robbie, there with some friends, when asked which piece he liked, he simply said, “All of them; I like them all.”
Tags: Echo, entertainment, hedland, News, Pilbara, pilbaranews, Port Hedland
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