Gillian Moore

Ex­cel­lence was key last week­end, when the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra pre­sent­ed a se­ries of con­certs-Pan on a High­er Note-at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, from June 4–6. The Sat­ur­day night con­cert fea­tured a mixed reper­toire ren­dered on G Pans by the 33 trained and mu­sic-lit­er­ate panists of the en­sem­ble, un­der the di­rec­tion of Jes­sel Mur­ray. Dance was al­so a big part of the show, as sev­er­al items on the pro­gramme were ac­com­pa­nied by dancers. The first half start­ed with the up­beat Hoe-Down, from the Aaron Copeland bal­let, Rodeo. The pans were re­ced­ed on the me­chan­i­cal stage for the next num­ber, Ray Hol­man's Chang­ing Time, to ac­com­mo­date a per­for­mance by Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Com­pa­ny, and chore­o­graphed by its artis­tic di­rec­tor, Nan­cy Her­rera. They waft­ed across the stage, echo­ing the lilt­ing melody.

Pi­ano vir­tu­oso Sean Suther­land showed his im­pres­sive skill on three pieces from Tchaikovsky's Pi­ano Con­cer­to No 1 in B Flat Mi­nor: Al­le­gro non trop­po e molto maestoso; An­dan­ti­no sem­plice; and, Al­le­gro con fuo­co. The au­di­ence lis­tened, spell­bound at the con­ver­sa­tion be­tween the mu­si­cians. Af­ter the break, the or­ches­tra played two fa­mil­iar pieces from the ro­man­tic bal­let, Les Syl­phides, as mem­bers of the Cas­cade Fes­ti­val Bal­let, in im­mac­u­late white cos­tumes with white flo­ral gar­lands in their hair, ren­dered a grace­ful and pol­ished per­for­mance. The rest of the sec­ond half fea­tured a di­verse mix of mu­si­cal gen­res, mov­ing away from the Eu­ro­pean clas­sics.

Saaj Samee­lan and Us­tav Ki Awaz (Fes­ti­val of Voic­es) by Jit Sama­roo were ac­com­pa­nied by dancers from the Su­san Mo­hip Dance Com­pa­ny (fea­tur­ing Rana Mo­hip), in beau­ti­ful, or­nate cos­tumes. The dancers wore per­cus­sive bells at their feet and per­formed sev­er­al dif­fer­ent types of dance. The first piece fea­tured Kathak dance, while the sec­ond showed sev­er­al folk styles. The next seg­ment, Latin Fever, was a big hit with the au­di­ence. It fea­tured Guan­tanam­era, Blue Bossa and Tico-Tico no Fub&aa­cute;.

Vo­cal ac­com­pa­ni­ment was the high­light of the rest of the show, with Kizzy Ruiz and Chris "Tam­bu" Hebert singing At Last and Love Changes Every­thing, re­spec­tive­ly, be­fore join­ing voic­es on The Prayer.

For the fi­nale, the or­ches­tra played Ben­jai's Tri­ni, a "feel-good" end­ing to a show that had cer­tain­ly pleased its pa­trons.