Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars: classical music stripped of its safety net. Deliciously so.
Upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s Monday night classical night demands your attention. Here you can talk in whispers to the person sat next to you at the same as you order and consume a meal. You’ve got an hour and twenty minutes. The music isn’t dumbed down. The performance is urgent.
Violinist Lizzie Ball makes a big ask of her co-collaborator James Pearson at the keyboard, who demands spirit of the performers with edgy seat-of-the-pants arrangements of much-loved big orchestral scores. This from a handful of musicians crammed on to a terrifyingly intimate stage. Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto for string quartet, trombone, piano, percussion and clarinet shouldn’t really work in such razor thin arrangements. Yet, collective investment in the reduced forces on stage is what makes the performance compelling.
There’s delicious jeopardy to be experienced sitting close to a bow, or a smile, or a wink. If you’re someone who doesn’t think of the people who make the music you click on and listen to on-demand, then this is the experience for you. To be within a metre of the people who are generating the sound is as close as you’re going to get to the experience of playing the instrument yourself. If you feel uncomfortable, then you should. This is what is at stake.
Rarely has watching a waiter gingerly negotiate cutlery on an empty plate or a protruding leg, foot or chair leg with a tray of wine, lager or cocktail in their hand made live performance quite so exhilarating. Lizzie Ball’s commitment to the format is unequivocal. Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending in particular has the power to silence a room of hungry patrons sufficient to suffocate the reverse snobbery about the work.
At £30 a head + drinks, it may price out the audience they’re looking to appeal to. But for those who have the budget and the time, it’s undoubtedly worth the money—the later show might be the better bet. Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with muffled percussion and decorative piano makes sense in a cabaret space.
If Ball and Pearson can secure it, this spot has the potential to offer UK musicians a tantalisingly challenging platform to do something different for a demographic with an appetite. The Crianza is a recommended accompaniment.
Each Monday night concert is a different programme. Check listings for details.
