Review :: A bubbling Vienna Pops

From The West Australian - TODAY ARTS
by Neville Cohn
03/01/11

Concert
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23rd Annual Vienna Pops
Perth Concert Hall on Friday, 31 December 2010
Review: Neville Cohn
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Billed as a "Champagne Concert", this 23rd annual New Year's Eve production of Vienna Pops had all the fizz and sparkle one associates with that famous tipple.
John Christmass, now well into his eighties, again defied the passage of time to present yet another in a concert series that invariably draws large and enthusiastic audiences.

Time and Time again, the musicians of the Vienna Pops Orchestra rose to the occasion with Peter Moore on the podium coaxing energetic, rhythmically pulsing accounts of old favourites. To the music of Robert Stolz's New Year's Eve Parade March, members of I Voci choir moved around the stalls handing out roses. It was a delightful touch to usher in the evening.

I cannot recall hearing the VPO to better advantage and this was especially so in the overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute which held the attention throughout, not least for first-rate contributions from the woodwind and brass sections. Trombones were in particularly good form.

Soprano Harriet Marshall, radiating energy, had the attention of all ears as she sang Kalman's Heia, heia. And she seemed positively to relish coming to grips with Johann Strauss' Czardas from DieFledermaus delivered in sizzling bravura style.

Why though, was it necessary to excessively amplify so substantial a voice which, unamplified, would surely have reached the furthest corners of the acoustically perfect Concert Hall? Much the same applied to other vocal offerings from Vienna Pops stalwarts Justin Freind and Alexandra Bak, both whom sang beautifully.

In ensemble with I Voci, baritone Robert Hoffman did well in an aria from Kalman's operetta Countess Maritza. Here, as in many of the operetta gems on offer, the music was in the best sense nostalgia-drenched, not least I Voci's impeccably prepared account of The Blue Danube. We also heard Tales from the Vienna Woods from guitar duo Duncan Gardiner and Claire Bonner.

David Hawkes was, as ever, a congenial compere.

For more than two decades, proceeds of Vienna Pops concerts have been donated to worthy causes. This year, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Passages Project (a halfway house for street kids) will benefit from the event.