12 Girls Band: Live from Shanghai description
PBS darlings the 12 Girls Band captivates fans all over again in their dazzling concert DVD Live from Shanghai. The band actually consists of 13 (a baker's dozen?) comely virtuoso young Chinese women, who play both traditional Chinese melodies and Western classical and pop tunes on their classic East Asian instruments, the erhu, pipa, yanguin, dizi, and guzheng. The spectacle is just as entertaining as the tightly delivered musical offerings, and this concert, which also showcases the gorgeous setting and skyline of Shanghai, is about as close to a trip to China as you can get without a passport. Highlights include the band's renditions of Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach--the last an especially accomplished, memorable version of the Concerto for Violin in A Minor. Traditional Chinese melodies are striking on pieces like "High Mountain and Floating Water." The band is joined by the talented singer Lila Downs for such vocals as "La Habanera" from Carmen--for which goosebumps are the order of the evening. Even a hoary jazz standard like "Take Five" sounds fresh in the hands of these enthusiastic musicians. (Tip: Skip over the theme from Titanic, or that refrain may haunt the rest of the concert.) Music fans from across the globe should be dazzled by the talent contained on this single stage. --A.T. Hurley |