IT cannot be often that an encore item from a concert provides the perfect summary for a review, but this is exactly what happened at the first Hawick Music Club concert of the season in the Heart of Hawick on Saturday!
Scozzesi (Italian for Scottish Men) rounded off their performance with the classic and much-loved song, Some Enchanted Evening, from My Fair Lady, thereby singing their own review! You may remember the opening words of the song... 'Some enchanted evening you may see a stranger; You may see a stranger across a crowded room; And somehow you know, you know even then; That somewhere you'll see her again and again'.
On Saturday night, there was no stranger!
Instead, a group of five young men – two Tenors - Roger Paterson and Christian Schneeberger - and two Baritones - Jonathan Kennedy and Douglas Nairne - under their conductor and pianist Jonathon Swinard – who wove their magic and endeared themselves to the audience with their very first piece, Gloire Immortelle, by Gounod.
Yes! There was a crowded room - the Heart of Hawick auditorium - and by the end of the evening somehow people knew that Scozzesi should be invited back to entertain the Club again.
Their programme included classical items from Faure, Verdi, Puccini and Mozart and a particularly electric duet of Bizet’s 'Au fond du temple saint' from Les Pecheurs de Perles.
Scozzesi used the auditorium brilliantly exiting the stage and reappearing from the upper rear for Offenbach’s 'The Gendarmes'.
They rekindled a love of Gilbert & Sullivan with 'I am the Pirate King' from the Pirates of Penzance and 'Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady' from Iolanthe and sang a couple of the many wonderful songs in Les Misérables.
As soloists, duos and singing trios and quartets, Scozzesi’s talents were evident.
The audience were romanced and entertained all evening and after they sang the final item, Lennon & McCartney’s 'When I get Older', there was no doubt that these young men have a full singing life ahead of them before they grow old and they will continue to provide their audiences with an Enchanted Evening.
Thank you Scozzesi!
Carol Peat
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