Post by Richard on Apr 21, 2007 13:46:43 GMT
Hello everybody! 
Here is an interesting review from the Peoria Journal Star. Hayley did not participate in this concert.
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Saturday, April 21, 2007
by GARY PANETTA of the Journal Star
A Review
PEORIA - The tribal thump of a great bass drum and other atmospheric sounds; dramatic lighting that occasionally bathes the stage in various colors, among them burnt orange; and five pretty, but ghostly women in white can mean only one thing:
Andre Rieu is in a lot of trouble.
Or, at least, PBS's favorite smiling Dutch violinist is going to have to make a little room on the public television station pantheon. For Celtic Woman has arrived.
The five-woman group, which performed at the Peoria Civic Center Arena on Thursday, clearly is a contender for the most-watched light entertainment spectacle on PBS. According to the Celtic Woman Web site, the group's first PBS special has been aired 3,400 times on 316 public stations since its March 2005 debut.
Like Rieu, Celtic Woman serves up ultra-light, ultra-easy going, ultra-relaxing music - the equivalent of nice, long, warm bubble bath of melody and chord progressions. But whereas Rieu draws on the classic music, Celtic Woman draws on the folk music of Ireland, which has been thoroughly updated and modernized for mega arena halls and mega audiences. If you love Celtic music of the "I'm wandering dreamily through the misty glades" variety, this is the show for you. Too bad if you weren't there. Just about everyone had a blast.
Well, almost everyone. I'll admit I don't quite get the appeal of this group. So much of their music seemed slow and portentous. Less sentimentality, more soul - and few additional faster numbers - would have suited me just fine. But I'm not going to frown on anyone's good time. The 4,000 or so in attendance Thursday absolutely loved this group, and they paid lots of cash to be there. So Celtic Woman must be doing something right.
In any case, musically speaking, these women - who consist of Chloe Agnew, Orla Fallon, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha and Mairead Nesbitt - are unimpeachable performers, proving themselves to be both versatile and expressive.
You sensed Mhaolchatha's vocal range and power in numbers like "Scarborough Fair" and "Danny Boy." Those high notes were stratospheric and she could hold them for a long time. Fallon combined her haunting voice with the even more haunting sound of a harp in "Carrick Fergus." And Agnew led all of the women in a nicely re-harmonized version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
But, for me, the highlight of the show was Nesbitt, the fiddler. She pranced, glided, skipped and swayed about the stage, her dress flying, her blond hair flipping - all the while sawing away on the violin. She teased out high notes, made the lower register resonate, bent notes, made the instrument sigh. At one point, Nesbitt's solo virtuoso number became a trio with two drummers pounding on tambourines, a guitar player picking out notes, the audience clapping along. It was a curiously - and refreshingly - pared down performance, the closest thing to an acoustic, unplugged experience in a completely plugged-in show, an experience closer to the heart of Irish music than even the most sensitively delivered rendition of "Danny Boy."[/size][/quote]
He forgot to mention Lisa Kelly!
Richard
Here is an interesting review from the Peoria Journal Star. Hayley did not participate in this concert.
Celtic music a hit with Peoria crowd
Irish folklore updated Thursday at Civic Center's Celtic Woman concert
Irish folklore updated Thursday at Civic Center's Celtic Woman concert
Saturday, April 21, 2007
by GARY PANETTA of the Journal Star
A Review
PEORIA - The tribal thump of a great bass drum and other atmospheric sounds; dramatic lighting that occasionally bathes the stage in various colors, among them burnt orange; and five pretty, but ghostly women in white can mean only one thing:
Andre Rieu is in a lot of trouble.
Or, at least, PBS's favorite smiling Dutch violinist is going to have to make a little room on the public television station pantheon. For Celtic Woman has arrived.
The five-woman group, which performed at the Peoria Civic Center Arena on Thursday, clearly is a contender for the most-watched light entertainment spectacle on PBS. According to the Celtic Woman Web site, the group's first PBS special has been aired 3,400 times on 316 public stations since its March 2005 debut.
Like Rieu, Celtic Woman serves up ultra-light, ultra-easy going, ultra-relaxing music - the equivalent of nice, long, warm bubble bath of melody and chord progressions. But whereas Rieu draws on the classic music, Celtic Woman draws on the folk music of Ireland, which has been thoroughly updated and modernized for mega arena halls and mega audiences. If you love Celtic music of the "I'm wandering dreamily through the misty glades" variety, this is the show for you. Too bad if you weren't there. Just about everyone had a blast.
Well, almost everyone. I'll admit I don't quite get the appeal of this group. So much of their music seemed slow and portentous. Less sentimentality, more soul - and few additional faster numbers - would have suited me just fine. But I'm not going to frown on anyone's good time. The 4,000 or so in attendance Thursday absolutely loved this group, and they paid lots of cash to be there. So Celtic Woman must be doing something right.
In any case, musically speaking, these women - who consist of Chloe Agnew, Orla Fallon, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha and Mairead Nesbitt - are unimpeachable performers, proving themselves to be both versatile and expressive.
You sensed Mhaolchatha's vocal range and power in numbers like "Scarborough Fair" and "Danny Boy." Those high notes were stratospheric and she could hold them for a long time. Fallon combined her haunting voice with the even more haunting sound of a harp in "Carrick Fergus." And Agnew led all of the women in a nicely re-harmonized version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
But, for me, the highlight of the show was Nesbitt, the fiddler. She pranced, glided, skipped and swayed about the stage, her dress flying, her blond hair flipping - all the while sawing away on the violin. She teased out high notes, made the lower register resonate, bent notes, made the instrument sigh. At one point, Nesbitt's solo virtuoso number became a trio with two drummers pounding on tambourines, a guitar player picking out notes, the audience clapping along. It was a curiously - and refreshingly - pared down performance, the closest thing to an acoustic, unplugged experience in a completely plugged-in show, an experience closer to the heart of Irish music than even the most sensitively delivered rendition of "Danny Boy."[/size][/quote]
He forgot to mention Lisa Kelly!
Richard
:bat: OK...
