Celebrated European saxophone troupe SIGNUM Quartet led a spirited, playful evening of old-school Hollywood hits with powerhouse Aussie soprano Ali McGregor at Melbourne Recital Centre.
Comprised of Blaž Kemperle on soprano saxophone, Jacopo Taddei on alto sax, Alan Lužar on tenor sax, and David Brand on baritone sax, the four players made for an incredible pairing in dynamic range to the soaring force of McGregor’s exquisitely powerful voice.
Celebrating 80 years of platforming the world’s greatest musicians and artists, Musica Viva presented a lovingly vintage showcase of songs and musical pieces for their Hollywood Songbook show, which opened last night at Melbourne Recital Centre and is set to touch every corner of Australia across the coming weeks.
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The song choices were full of jazz bar splendour, albeit given a hearty dose of knock-out glamour from the starry magnitude of McGregor’s voice. Adopting the hip-wiggling shimmer of a Golden Age cabaret star, the immense volume of her delivery – both in decibel rating and sheer scale, filling every inch of air space within the auditorium – was playfully matched by the clarity and energy of SIGNUM’s own performance.
The two sonic powerhouses made for a stellar fusion, both presenting complementary shades of the same kind of playful, eye-winking bravado. Even the players themselves were in-step with McGregor’s glistening stage presence, the four gents wrapped in tight crushed-velvet lounge suits and eye-catching patent-leather shoes.
There were numerous instances in which the four players performed sans vocal accompaniment, arranging well-loved showtunes for saxophone quartet. An inspired, appealing quirky choice of repertoire was an arrangement of Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights, which lent itself surprisingly well to just four gents with a range of saxes. For such a famously dramatic, brooding piece of music, it was vigorously reinvented in SIGNUM’s cheeky, buoyant performance style.
As much a feast for the ears as well as the eyes, SIGNMUM Saxophone Quartet led a fabulous showcase of Technicolor cabaret standards with Ali McGregor bursting through the roof, in a beguiling show of Hollywood glitz and unshakeable talent.
SIGNMUM Saxophone Quartet and Ali McGregor will be performing Hollywood Songbook at locations across Australia from 6 May to 17 May 2025. Book your tickets here.
