Stand-out singing from Shaun Escoffery

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Last night, the pristine Royal Festival Hall hosted Gershwin Reimagined – a concert celebrating the legendary composer’s repertoire with a transgressive approach. The mastermind behind the concert was composer Troy Miller. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Miller has supported the likes of Roy Ayers and Amy Winehouse. He has also produced music for Adele and Gregory Porter and composed pieces for various high-profile orchestras.

Miller’s ‘reimaginations’ were delivered by the exquisite Philharmonia Orchestra. The set covered a well-chosen selection of Gershwin’s finest compositions including ‘Fascinating Rhythm’, ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’, ‘A Foggy Day’, ‘Embraceable You’, ‘Summertime’, ‘But Not For Me’, ‘Catfish Row’, and ‘Lullaby for Strings’. With energetic strings and vibrant percussion, the orchestra played wonderfully. The only clear misstep was an experimental take on ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ which sapped the gorgeous lullaby of melody. However, compositions such as ‘I Got Rhythm’ were approached with feverish dynamics and interesting musical detours.

Although a charismatic conductor, it was disappointing that Miller did not share any insight behind his creative process. With an audience presumably full of Gershwin fans, some storytelling as to how he picked apart these classics and pieced them back together would have strengthened the evening’s concept.

Roughly half the set was purely instrumental. For the remaining compositions, Miller invited soul singers Laura Mvula and Shaun Escoffery to the stage. Mvula, a MOBO and Ivor Novello award-winning singer-songwriter, approached her first two numbers (‘Fascinating Rhythm’ and ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’) with a degree of trepidation and emotional distance. However, during the concert’s second set, Miller diverged from Gershwin to render two of Mvula’s original songs. Her performance of ‘Show Me Love’, from her sophomore album The Dreaming Room, was captivating and absorbing – with Miller’s orchestral arrangement adding heaps of gravitas.

Escoffery – well-known for his theatre appearances in Parade and The Lion King – sang with finesse, reaching gracefully into a light falsetto but also soaring into a belt with strong vibrato. He delivered a considered, brooding interpretation of ‘A Foggy Day’, managing to wrap his soulful inflections around the swelling arrangement. He was also poised on ‘Embraceable You’ and ‘But Not For Me’. As an encore, Escoffery and Mvula joined to perform a well-sung rendition of the classic aria ‘Summertime’ from Porgy & Bess.