Quartetto Gelato Review (20 October 2014)

Val Friesen

Mmmm gelato! Such a delightful treat—light, sweet and delicious, and hard to choose among the tempting flavours, each with its own tantalizing appeal.

Quartetto Gelato, who opened this season’s offering of four concerts presented by the South Okanagan Concert Society, was absolutely that delightful treat. Sixteen melodic flavours, including tangy tango, lusty latino and tender tenor, captivated and amused a very appreciative full house in the Frank Venables Theatre on Monday evening.

The Toronto based quartet are multi-talented musicians with acrobatic inclinations and a huge helping of whimsy in their collective DNA. Accordion, violin/tenor, cello, and oboe/clarinet/mandolin/guitar wove the musical magic. Superb musicianship combined with relaxed interactions among the performers meant that they and we had a most entertaining evening and a lot of fun. Memorable, in fact.
Much of the music was drawn from pop standards we all love—Under Paris Skies, Volare, La Vie en Rose—but some pieces touched deeply, such as the profoundly beautiful and moving Piazzolla tango which brought a collective sigh from the audience when it ended. Al Di La, (Al Martino sang it in The Godfather) was dedicated by violin virtuoso and founder of the group, Peter de Sotto, to his deceased wife on her birthday. Such shared intimacies elevate the already beautiful music in a rare and deeply moving way, a hallmark of the emotional appeal of this superb quartet.

The audience obviously loved the different moods created, as well as the on-stage antics. The fun the performers had of simulating bagpipe music reached an even quirkier level when Colin Maier (who plays 14 instruments, is an actor, black belt, and Cirque du Soleil performer) played his oboe while standing on two chairs and did the splits—well, you had to have been there!

Guest cellist Lydia Munchinsky played beautifully, and serenely held her own while the others did their man-thing hi-jinks around her. The fourth member of the quartet, Alexander Sevastian, four time world champion accordionist and self-styled perogy gourmet/eater, was equally brilliant as when we saw him here as soloist four years ago, but also much funnier this time.

Thanks, SOCS and their generous sponsors, for this excellent evening of entertainment. Three fine programs yet to come. The mark has been set very high.

P.S. PLEASE Vote YES on November 15 to ensure the Frank Venables Theatre continues to enhance the quality of life in our amazing community.