In Sunday’s (6/7) Buffalo News, Joe Sweeney writes that among the pops offerings of orchestras, “it’s the rock tribute nights that get everybody cheering the loudest. This point was proven with authority on Saturday night in Kleinhans Music Hall, where the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra treated a big, happy crowd to ‘The Music of Queen.’ By taking on a canon of material that’s already one of the most joyful and majestic in rock history, the BPO was able to give a performance that was organic and true—their symphonic muscle was a natural fit for these songs. … Opening with the incendiary, chugging riffage of ‘Tie Your Mother Down,’ the band threatened to drown out the BPO early on—I saw bows moving back and forth, and that’s about it. But from that point forward, the mix stopped being an issue. The next tune was ‘Play the Game,’ one of Freddie Mercury’s most simplistically beautiful creations. Hearing the strings swell over the song’s glorious melody was truly something to experience.”
Posted June 9, 2009
