Concert Hall, QPAC, Southern Cross Soloists
June 28, 2015

The Southern Cross Soloists continue to celebrate their 20th birthday in style with a matinee repertoire of popular French compositions, skilfully performed alongside special guests Piers Lane and Marshall McGuire.

The concert began with Jean-Féry Rebel’s Le Chaos, which Creative Director Tania Frazer cited as the inspiration for the concert’s title. “It was quite a revelation to me,” Ms. Frazer said of her first experience with the radical baroque work, adding that she was “surprised to find how old the piece was.” She also noted that the work would not be out of place in a modern film score, and joked that the ensemble had been channelling the famous “shower scene” from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as they played the dramatic, dissonant piece.

The concert did not falter after its strong opening, but continued through a pleasant program of romantic classical pieces selected, according to Frazer, for their joie de vivre, a trait that was also evident in the musicians.

Soprano Margaret Schindler exercised her talent in a trio of Reynaldo Hahn’s songs, accompanied on the harp by guest artist...