Conductor Simon Capet and the 18 founding members of his Euphonia chamber orchestra can be proud of their inaugural concert at Lula Lounge on Monday night.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
It wasn’t as much a concert as a club gig, with a programme divided into three sets separated by time to chat with friends, order another round of drinks, or to duck outside for a quick smoke.
Instead of playing from the stage, Euphonia performed from the central dancefloor, surrounded by a roomfull of interested onlookers — a group that included the kitchen staff once they shut down for the evening.
Capet interspersed the music with informal, spoken introductions. I arrived about halfway through the first set, which consisted of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 3. The background noise of clinking glasses and shuffling feet quickly faded into the distance under the power of this mesmerizing music.
Euphonia bass player Jordan O’Conor created effective arrangements of five songs from Beck’s Song Reader album. Capet played piano as well as conducting members of the orchestra and vocalist Gillian Margot.
Beck has a fine way with a melody, and the songs were well performed, but the overall downtempo mood of these pieces made for a bit too much sameness in feel as well as texture.
The evening ended with the Chamber Symphony, an adaptation of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. It has intensity as well as contrast. It also tests the ability of the string players to really focus their playing and sound — something that didn’t always work out on Monday night.
But that wasn’t the point — at least not this time.
Euphonia is about showing how classical music can fit comfortably into a non-traditional environment and engage an audience. In this, the evening was a runaway success.
The orchestra returns to Lula Lounge on the second Monday of every month. The next concert, on May 13, will feature music by Spanish and Latin American composers. You can find Euphonia’s Facebook page here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
