It's somehow reassuring to learn that Pink Martini were once capable of slip-ups because their performances these days are almost too good to be true.
Ultimately, of course, hearing of how their guiding light, Thomas Lauderdale, misheard some of Amada Mio's original lyrics and gave China Forbes the wrong words to sing and of how the band were sued for misappropriating the words to their breakthrough hit, Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler – and then asked for their autographs –- only added to the entertainment.
And there was plenty of that here as well as sublime musicianship and Forbes' superb navigation through a veritable United Nations of a repertoire. Lauderdale's introductions and explanations of how, for instance, elements of Schubert, I Will Survive and a Havana ballroom in 1952 come together in And Then You're Gone – to say nothing of his fascination with a young Turkish audience member who helped out with another chorus – would make for a show in themselves.
As with the band's previous appearance at the Usher Hall, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra became a marvellously mobile, lush and very natural extension of the Pink Martini sound, making the train that pulled violinist Nicholas Crosa's Croatian feature all the more luxurious and swelling the Tchaikovsky borrowings in Splendour in the Grass with high class vigour. On a gig where even the triangle playing earned an exclamation mark in ny notebook, the highlights were pretty much the set-list, although Forbes' wordless intro to the Japanese film theme tune Song of the Black Lizard was beyond brilliant, and the groove that drove a conga dance through the auditorium during Brazil was clearly irresistible.
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