Review by Steve Bennett

This is classical music showing its relaxed side. Which means the girls performing in hotpants and figure-hugging mini-dresses… while the men don’t wear bow ties with their dinner jackets

Yes, there’s a slightly dated air to Poland’s Philharmonic Of Wit, in the presentation and in the humour – but there’s no denying the power of a 19-piece orchestra to impress. If you’re not moved by Nessun Dorma, stirred by The Toreador Song, or cheered by Hava Nagila, you have no soul.

The show is a mix of virtuoso music and less assured comedy sketches, good-natured but stilted and forced in their execution. Of course the mashup of styles is the main gag – classical musos playing The Final Countdown or I Like To Move It, as the chubby grey-haired conductor shimmies his bulk across the stage like Baloo The Bear. Beethoven’s 9th gets an American makeover, making it more like Beet-hoedown’s 9th.

These are highlights, as is a musical duel between pianist and host Waldemar Malicki and the rest of the ensemble, with an increasingly brisk sabre dance. But when it comes to more general skits ‘shut up and play’ would be a good motif. Charitably you could ascribe it to the second language problem, but the awkward ‘banter’ between Malicki and his first violinist, soprano and tenor is wooden in three-ply. Other pieces, such as the recreation of the Titanic video for My Heart Will Go On, are merely functional.

At its lowest ebbs, the show is dangerously close to a classical music version of the cheesy acts in Phoenix Nights – the female violinist stripping down to a peculiarly unsexy leather basque to belt out AC/DC’s Highway To Hell coming nearest.

Yet we’re never too far from an impressive medley or solo performance; and the sheer scale of the production is effective enough to warrant a standing ovation from a relatively sparse audience in such a large hall at the EICC.

Review date: 13 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Venue150 at EICC