The John Wilson Orchestra review: Intoxicating

The John Wilson Orchestra 

Symphony Hall Birmingham            On tour until Dec 12

Rating:

The John Wilson Orchestra is on tour all over the country with a brand-new tribute to the great MGM musicals. And a full house in Birmingham loved it.

This year the Maida Vale Singers, a professional choir of 16, has joined up, and its contribution is first-class. When, at the end of Wilson’s tribute to the father of American operetta, Sig Romberg, the chorus sang When I Grow Too Old To Dream, it was hankie time for me.

Elsewhere, you sometimes notice the best of the MGM tunes were in Wilson’s first show. But the orchestra is now so good it can bowl you over even when a killer tune is missing, as in the opener, the overture to The Unsinkable Molly Brown. And when they’ve got a great melody, they’re fantastic, as in Jerome Kern’s Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man from Show Boat or Conrad Salinger’s wondrous arrangement of Harry Warren’s This Heart Of Mine.

Wilson and his team have recreated the original orchestrations from listening to soundtracks because, back in 1969, MGM sold all the sheet music for the orchestral parts as landfill to a California golf course

Wilson and his team have recreated the original orchestrations from listening to soundtracks because, back in 1969, MGM sold all the sheet music for the orchestral parts as landfill to a California golf course

 If you fancy going, there’s a matinee at London’s Royal Festival Hall next Saturday, with plenty of tickets left

 If you fancy going, there’s a matinee at London’s Royal Festival Hall next Saturday, with plenty of tickets left

There are two vocalists: the veteran Matt Ford, as smooth as silk, and Louise Dearman, a reliable companion both on her own and in duets such as Anything You Can Do, which brought the house down.

But with the JWO it’s not just the performance but the preparation. Wilson and his team have recreated the original orchestrations from listening to movie soundtracks because, back in 1969, MGM sold all the sheet music for the orchestral parts as landfill to a California golf course – an act of desecration worthy of Attila the Hun, though it makes me smile to think of golfers hacking away on top of some of the finest music ever written.

If you fancy going, there’s a matinee at London’s Royal Festival Hall next Saturday, with plenty of tickets left.

Treat yourself. Christmas spirit is rarely more intoxicating than with John Wilson. 

johnwilsonorchestra.com

 



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