Classic Meets Cuba concert review

Am supposed to be sleeping now, but am on a concert high...

Just came back from the Classic Meets Cuba concert at Esplanade Theatre. Strange they would have a music concert in the theatre rather than the concert hall... Anyway, was there with Paul & Elaine, Charles and Sufen. (Btw, if you're reading this, Paul, HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY...! :) ) All of us (except for Elaine :( ) went for dinner at The Asian Kitchen long city link. Quite a new place. Took over Delifrance... quite decent food, tho my pork chop a bit too dry... but the ramen was good.

1st half was... erm... no comments. Pianist's octaves was off most of the time for the 1st few pieces. Basically, they were playing almost like the CD for the 1st few numbers. :( Makes me wonder if the $38 we paid for the tickets is worth spending. They performed the standard classical pieces found on the Classic Meets Cuba CD (Bee's 5th Symphony, Pathetique Sonata), Bach's Air on G String and Cello Suite No. 1, amongst others which I can't remember. Well, at least the double bassist and the Cuban Percussionists are humourous, so it's a l'll bit of entertainment value...

The concert started picking up in the 2nd half and it was a blast! Had a preview of the 4th album coming out next year - Mozart Meets Cuba. The group performed Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro Overture and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The pianist also performed his own composition, which sounded like a mix of Chopin, Liszt and Rach. They did some numbers from the Jazz Meets Cuba album too - The Boy (Girl) From Ipanema and Miles Davis's So What. The encore was the best part of the concert. They did Mambozart (!), a jazzed up version of Haydn's Emperor Quartet 2nd movt aka German National Anthem, which was a nice lead-in after some of the audience gave a standing ovation. The last encore piece is a jazz version of Smile, which was so beautifully done, I was almost moved to tears!!! At the very end of the concert, I gave a standing ovation. (I give very few performing groups standing ovation, if you must know, and this is one of the very few.) After the concert, Charles, Sufen and I went to queue up for 15 min for the group to sign autographs on the concert flyer...! And to make sure it doesn't get damaged, got Charles to laminate the flyer for us...! (thanks, man! :) )

sigh... but alas... concert is over... good company must separate... back to reality we must go...