Music
Sinatra Centenary
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
Strictly some nine days after the event, promoter Raymond Gubbay's belated birthday card to The Voice will nonetheless have left few in the capacity house disappointed. With conductor Richard Balcombe, who directed the BBC SSO's Christmas concert on Sunday, on the podium, and a few faces he'd recognise among the strings, it was a classy affair that did not stint on human resources with a full 17 piece big band - trumpeter Ryan Quigley and trombonist Chris Grieve among the brass - alongside the dozen orchestral players, six dancers and vocalists Emma Kershaw and Iain Mackenzie.
If the latter was cast in the most demanding role, he made light of the heavy lifting with a style that always recalled Sinatra's tone and phrasing but could never be condemned as pastiche, while also delivering his knowledgable introductions to the songs with relaxed charm. He was capable of covering the whole repertoire too - best on the the swingers, but fine on the ballads and even convincing on My Way, which closed the first half, Paul Anka's dreadful rhymes having to follow the witty smut of Luck Be A Lady.
The arrangements were generally strictly by the (Nelson Riddle) book, but Balcombe supplied a few of his own, I reckon, especially in a seasonal second half of Yuletide variety from half a century ago, including a reprise of the lovely lyric of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (as re-worked post-Garland for Sinatra) for those of us who had enjoyed hearing it on Sunday. Mackenzie's duet with Kershaw - who was also in excellent voice throughout - on Baby, It's Cold Outside was another chestnut and cockle-warming highlight, even if at odds with metereological reality.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here