Claire Greig
April 2nd 2011
Wersi Performer
We had enjoyed a really beautiful sunny spring day before the concert evening came around.
Well, Claire was dressed in casual slacks with a sequined jacket and opened her program on her Wersi Performer with the theme from Ski Sunday, as skiing happens to be one of her favorite pastimes. From there she launched into some Glenn Miller numbers, i.e. Moonlight Serenade, In The Mood and American Patrol.. Taking us back to the Sixties, we heard Here, There & Everywhere by the Beatles, played in a jazzy style. From the film The Mission, Claire played Gabriels Angel, set to a rich orchestral arrangement. The music of Klaus Wunderlich (1931-1997) pops up quite regularly at our concerts, this time in the shape of the Dreaming Organist, Einsamer Hirte (Lonely Shepherd), set to pan flutes and The Happy Organ Player for which Claire used mellow organ sounds.
Claire had only recently made some tri-angular pieces of lycra which she had fastened to her speaker stands with a timed light behind to create a diffused effect, a good way to hide to hide the speaker stands.
The next piece, which she had only learnt last week, was John Barry's Out Of Africa. This she followed with some light classical music, The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba, opening with a piano section, then strings, a touch of harpsichord and occasionally some church organ voices.
From the film An American Tale, Claire then played Somewhere Out There before upping the tempo for Dizzy Fingers.
To conclude the first half, Claire played the Dambusters March, not in strict march tempo, but exactly at the speed it was written.
Refreshments taken and the raffle drawn, we settled down to the second half which opened with Franz Lambert's Dreaming Ballerina, inclusive of a few running arpeggios. Then she launched into Carnival with some guitar and string sounds, Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom Time, Brazil and Wave with lots of trumpet and organ sounds.
Next a piece, played without any rhythm, the Dream Of Olwyn. Following that we heard a couple of Elton John numbers: Your Song and Can You Feel The Love Tonight? Using the digital drawbars on the organ we then heard Red Roses For A Blue Lady before hopping over to Austria for The Blue Danube and Tales From Vienna Woods.
With that we had reached the end of the evening, with Claire playing us out with a lively selection of Wonderwoman, The Avengers and Mission Impossible.
The traditional Basildon encore was an excerpt from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusic.
Thank you for a pleasant evening Claire.