This performer gave the gig everything they had – but the crowd gave very little back

“Y’all have one job, and it’s just to have f—ing fun”, Kehlani says early on. The performer gives everything they have to their onstage performance – but this spirit isn’t matched by the crowd. Kehlani does their best to bring the fire and sensuality of a club to the show, but fans in general admission remain quite stilted, preferring to capture footage on their smartphones.

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When Kehlani performs After Hours, the final song of the show, the crowd finally gets into the groove. Unfortunately, it’s a little too late.

The show ends abruptly with no encore. Earlier in the set, the singer promises to make a club appearance after the gig at Ms Collins (ironic, given they perform their single Hate the Club as part of the show). An anticlimactic end to the evening.

Reviewed by Vyshnavee Wijekumar

MUSIC
Yamen Saadi with Simon Tedeschi ★★★★
Melbourne Recital Centre, March 18

Fritz Kreisler was one of the 20th century’s great violin virtuosos and ensured his legacy would extend beyond his recordings by composing a host of popular miniatures that continue to round off many a violin recital.

Imagine the delight of Kreisler lovers when a program mostly devoted to his music is performed on one of the Stradivari violins he used to play – and the performer is none other than the young concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, representing Kreisler’s birthplace.

Still in his 20s, Yamen Saadi is a polished exponent of the Viennese style and played the 1734 “Lord Amherst of Hackney” Stradivarius previously in Kreisler’s possession. Opening with the master’s signature work, the Prelude and Allegro, Saadi clearly delineated Kreisler’s quasi-baroque lines with brilliant technique and soaring tone.

Sensitively partnered with distinguished Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi, Saadi then presented Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, a work often performed by Kreisler. Eliciting delicate colouring from the second movement and rhythmic energy from the finale, the duo brought a fair degree of dramatic interest to this youthful work.

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It was really in the remaining part of the program, given over to Kreisler’s miniatures, that a true sense of Saadi’s artistic flair was revealed. Kreisler’s arrangements of Brahms, de Falla and Albeniz were each given their own unique sensibility, flavoured by the multi-hued, sweet singing tone of the Strad.

Kreisler’s own La Gitana (with its Arabian influences referencing Saadi’s heritage), the Viennese March with its pianistic music box effects, the bittersweet Liebesleid and the lyrical Schön Rosmarin were all part of a polished Viennese charm offensive. As deftly characterised as all these were, it was only in the program’s encore that Saadi finally let loose a passionate torrent of expression for which the enthusiastic audience had been waiting.
Reviewed by Tony Way

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