Katie Melua stuns with ‘Scarborough Fair’

–

Indisputably one of the greatest songs of all time, ‘Bridge Over Trouble Water’ is now fifty years old. The gorgeous gospel piano, the soaring string section, and Art Garfunkel’s angelic tenor all wrap around Paul Simon’s lyric of friendship and hope to create something truly extraordinary and inescapably moving. The album of the same name – packed with brilliant material – marked Simon & Garfunkel’s final release.

BBC Radio 2 celebrated the seminal album last night with a special concert at the London Palladium, part of the Friday Night is Music Night series.

Hosted by poet and academic Lemn Sissay, the first set dotted around the duo’s greatest hits while the second focused solely on Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), with each track performed in the order it appeared on the record. Newly orchestrated renditions were delivered by the BBC Concert Orchestra, joined by a roster of guest performers from the worlds of folk, pop, country and soul.

Jutting into the front stalls because of its sheer size – inadvertently relocating press to the grand circle (minor grumble) – the orchestra had no expense spared. There was a risk of the sixty-piece fixture sanitising the material, especially considering that the beauty in Simon & Garfunkel’s repertoire often derives from its telling minimalism and gentle layerings.

Fortunately, under the direction of West End conductor Mike Dixon, the orchestrations were largely on the money. A Phil Spectorish shimmer and richness was brought to ‘I Am A Rock’, sung by the soulful Tony Momrelle; ‘Why Don’t You Write Me’ was coloured with sharp, brassy textures, further lifted by folk trio Windwood Kin‘s harmonies; Adam Dickinson and Cameron Potts, the leads in The Simon & Garfunkel Story, came into their own on a rocky, more visceral ‘What The Customer Wants’. Perhaps there was too much sheen added to ‘The Sound of Silence’, thus stripping the song of its austere, chilling quality (though it was sung well by country duo The Shires). Indian artist Nikhil D’Souza seemed occasionally overpowered, although he still shone on a plaintive rendition of ‘The Boxer’.

Cassidy Janson, in great spirits despite sustaining a leg injury during her main gig at the & Juliet musical, revelled in a string-laden ‘At the Zoo’ from the duo’s concept album Bookends (1968), offering charm and whimsicality (perhaps doubly necessary given the tune’s slightly Orwellian connotations). She returned in the second set with a fiery ‘Baby Driver’.

I will admit to being underwhelmed by Will Young‘s pedestrian take on ‘Mrs Robinson’. He was more convincing on ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, although the emotional climax was a more a result of the lighting, the backing singers, and the swell of the orchestra than his vocal delivery. ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’, a melancholic tune foreshadowing the duo’s split, was his strongest performance.

British-Georgian singer-songwriter Katie Melua has a truly beguiling, subtle delivery and thus benefitted from (largely) retiring the orchestra for her performances. Her voice wisped beautifully on ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)’, and her haunting delivery of ‘Scarborough Fair’ was a highlight of the evening. The latter was a telling example that, while arrangements can be modified and lifted, sometimes a beautiful voice is all that’s required.

The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 6th March