Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: Jason Rosewarne.
As a regular gig attendee, I find that the consistency of sound quality going from one location to another can vary dramatically. Sometimes it’s just a matter of an incompatible room for the artist. Consequently, it was with a great deal of delight that I came across a concert whereby the venue and its acoustic properties were perfectly matched with the talent. Such is the case with the City of Boroondara’s Strings and Voices series at the ornate Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Strings and Voices combines some of our finest local vocalists with a string section, in a series running every Saturday night over the month of August. On Saturday night we had the pleasure of witnessing singer-songwriter Lior’s show, backed by a string quartet, double bass and backing vocalist.
The first thing you notice upon entering the Hawthorn Arts Centre is the sheer beauty of the venue, as you’ll see in Jason Rosewarne’s fabulous photos of the night. Designed by architect John Beswicke in the Second Empire style, the hall was built in the late 1800s and in 2012 the council approved a $17.9 million redevelopment of the building, renaming it the Hawthorn Arts Centre in 2013. It’s simply a stunning room.
Support act for the night was Xani Kolac, a virtuosic violinist, backed by her sister Meg on double bass. The pair performed tracks from Hymns for Atheists, a musical project featuring odes to humankind, feminism, animals, the planet and love itself. Xani’s searing violin lines encircled the spacious room, with the attentive audience allowing every pluck of the strings to be heard. The amiable Xani and her sister were a superb choice to warm up the discerning, music-loving crowd.
Lior’s backing musicians took to the stage and tuned up, with the headline artist appearing soon after to tell us that he’d be performing a wide range of material from his 20-year career, selecting songs best suited to the series format. Beginning with Grey Ocean from his Autumn Flow album, it was evident early on that we were in for a night of musical magnificence. Vocalist Domini Forster’s short but haunting backing spots on this track made the tune particularly seductive.
The beautiful A Lift In The Morning Fog followed, with Lior noting that the musicians on stage were the very same people who had recorded the track for his Scattered Reflections album in 2014, including his long-time bass player Brett Hurst.
Lior then related the story behind Daniel, one of his most recognisable songs. It turns out that Daniel was an old school friend back in Lior’s pub rock days, who didn’t believe that the song was about him despite being told it was, and regardless of the final lyric of the song being, “Step into a doorway in my mind. This is where you live Daniel.” All Daniel would acknowledge was that he liked the “Hi-igh, hi-igh igh igh” chorus. It wasn’t until Daniel heard the song on Triple J that he finally realised that he had been immortalised in song. Knowing the backstory of the song created a closer relationship to the track for the audience, an appealing element of the night which continued throughout the show with each new story.
One of the highlights of the night was a stunning cover of Radiohead’s No Surprises, with the string quartet’s intro setting up an enchanting musical excursion.
Next up was Bedouin Song from Autumn Flow, a song Lior wrote about the time he spent with the Bedouin nomads and what he learned about their connection to land and water. Accompanied only by cellist Rachael Tobin, the Associate Principal Cello of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the song took on a mystical quality.
As Lior told Australian Musician in our interview recently, he was utilising several guitars on the night, not out of exhibitionism but due to each one being tuned differently and being easily accessible. Laying down one of his gorgeous acoustic guitars, he then selected his white electric Telecaster to perform the Joe “Red” Hayes and Jack Rhodes blues song A Satisfied Mind, with the guitar’s reverb-laden tones swirling around the room uninhibited.
Asking for audience backing vocal participation on the alluring Real Love, Lior found the crowd happy to comply with his wishes. He then related the tale of how the tune I’ll Forget You from his second album Corner of an Endless Road came together. Searching for a duet partner for the song, he fortuitously ran into Sia in LA, who agreed to record with him the next day. At the Hawthorn Arts Centre, however, it was the incredible voice of Domini Forster who pulled up a stool and performed the song with distinction on this night.
In his introduction of the final song of the main set, Lior told us that This Old Love was picked up in the Netherlands and became the most played song of the year in that region. A Dutch TV personality-“the Daryl Somers of the Netherlands,” as described by Lior-wanted to record the tune and asked the songwriter for his permission. Lior was happy to allow him to record the song but asked that he receive a copy of the track before it was released. Lior then gave us a taste of his hit single in Dutch (not the prettiest of languages) and expressed his regret that the song wasn’t instead recorded in a more romantic language such as French! Of course, the version Lior delivered to us in Hawthorn with his wonderful string accompaniment was exquisite, despite a guitar strap malfunction mid-song. “That’s never, ever happened to me before,” he said before continuing with the tender ballad.
An encore was never in doubt and Lior asked Domini to return to the front of the stage to perform the alluring Gloria, a song from an EP titled Animal in Hiding that they recorded together in 2021. To finish the evening Lior and the entire group of musicians returned for a mesmerising version of Nature Boy, a song made famous by Nat King Cole and George Benson.
There are three more concerts in the Strings and Voices series at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. If you’re into immaculately played music, in an ornate, acoustically perfect room, then don’t miss one or all of the gigs over the next three Saturday nights.
Strings and Voices
Hawthorn Arts Centre: 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, VIC
Saturday 8 August – Georgia Fields with Andromeda String Quartet and Happy Axe – Tickets
Saturday 15 August – Harpedelique Ensemble and Invenio – Tickets
Saturday 29 August – Homophonic! RESPECT and QiQi – Tickets
All tickets on sale now via: boroondara.vic.gov.au/arts
Tickets available by telephone, Box Office or online.
Phone: 03 9278 4770 – Email: arts@boroondara.vic.gov.au
