Voyages concert fails to take off
The Age
Friday January 28, 2011
VOYAGES Rating: 2/5Australia Day Concert, Federation Square, January 26THE annual Voyages concert has been of great benefit in the past as a showcase for many cultural threads in the community, various organisations showing off their original national colours through dance, song or music-making. A large crowd always turns up to applaud the performers' efforts. But this year's program well, the two-thirds that I saw failed to catch the imagination, only a few numbers shining out in pretty drab surroundings.The Australian Army Band Fanfare Team brought us to order with a specially written piece testing their first trumpet's agility, before the hosts, a pair of lederhosen-wearing comics, took to the stage with a routine of minimal amusement value.The evening's theme, Blow your Horn for Australia Day, saw a mixed bag of soloists presenting brief solo spots in sequence: everything from Irma Thalmann's long alphorn to Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn's shofar (ram's horn), with goat-horn bagpipes and a Tibetan gyaling (double-reed shawm) punctuating the sounds of orthodox orchestral/military band brass instruments. Not that the players were all equally secure but the range of timbres on display made for an interesting sequence.But other acts misfired, including a not particularly impressive exhibition of soccer-ball dexterity from three Football Star Academy members.The Bombay Royale group's tribute to India's Republic Day proved tedious for its big-band/disco fusion; the Itchy Feet Pep Band might have fared better with more attention to their playing skills; the Fresh Kids dance routine was little more than transplanted US ghetto rap/break-dance moves; the Met Connection sequence showed off the fast-working talents of sand animation artist Zorba; and Mal Webb's take on I've Been Everywhere sounded a garbled mess in this uncomfortable venue with its poor, fitful amplification system.
© 2011 The Age