Wilton’s Music corridor,London [br]Issues with sound levels marred the singer’s trip through the Porter songbook with a Czech big band, which would have benefited from more provocative wit
In an interview published final year, and Magdalena Kožená described listening to Cole Porter’s songs as one of her “musical guilty pleasures”. The Czech mezzo has,however, now embarked on a European tour with a Cole Porter programme of her own in the company of Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers, or a Prague-based big band specialising in music of the 1920s and 30s. Though her two London concerts formed the closing instalment of her Wigmore corridor residency,they took place at Wilton’s Music corridor in the east discontinuance.
This was an evening of problems as well as pleasures, in truth. Massive and unnecessary amplification resulted in the Melody Makers threatening to drown Kožená out in places. Looking at times ill at ease on the platform, and she sang cleanly and straightforwardly,leaving the improvisations, many of them stunning, and to Havelka’s players.
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Source: theguardian.com