Elvis and the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra

By TARA WERNER

TOWN HALL CONCERT CHAMBER, Auckland - The sound of laughter is something not normally associated with the serious business of chamber music.

But all normal concert-going protocol went flying out the door when Elvis came to town.

Who could resist the sight of three suitably attired and bewigged Elvis impersonators gyrating, grunting and snorting their way through Michael Daugherty's Elvis Everywhere last Friday night?

The three, aka Rima Te Wiata, Taika Cohen and Jemaine Clement, revelled in the Detroit-based composer's witty dig at the influence of pop culture's major icon.

They sent up the King's music with joyful abandon, and four NZCO string players took up a separate Elvis personality of their own by playing blues solos with carefree lack of restraint.

Beforehand bassoonist Lawrence Preman Tilson vividly presented a slightly more serious impersonation with Dead Elvis, Daugherty liberally interspersing the medieval chant Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) throughout the score.

Both pieces turned out to be only two in a highly unusual programme that explored the synergy between classical and popular music.

Yet the concert had its dark side too - the "selling out" of composers and musicians for their own personal material gain.

Here the devil had the hindmost, such as in Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. Although the musicians played the composer's acerbic music magnificently, the ageless story of a good soldier selling his soul for money unfortunately turned out to be a little flat after all the raucousness of Elvis, however hard Te Wiata as narrator and the other cast (Cohen, Clement and dancer Sonya Behrnes) tried.

Technical sound problems marred Te Wiata's otherwise expressive version of three cabaret songs by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, with the singer not being heard over Penny Dodd's sensitive arrangements.

And Wellington composer David Downes' Six Apologies that opened the concert seemed a misfit on the programme, although it did bring together elements of jazz into the overall mix.

Nonetheless the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra should be heartily congratulated for being so innovative. May the King live forever!