Antony and the Johnsons at the Barbican, EC2
John Bungey
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article5067222.eceOn paper a concert by Antony Hegarty backed by a 60-piece orchestra might not seem a good idea. Hegarty's bittersweet mood of self-absorption (sample lyric from Cripple and the Starfish: "I am so very happy/ So please hit me") slathered in strings could teeter into mawkishness. This, though, does not happen, and that's largely because of the sensitive, striking orchestrations of Nico Mulhy, a young collaborator with Philip Glass, who couches Hegarty's fluttering contralto in vivid settings using the full resources of the London Symphony Orchestra.
For his first British concert in three years, Hegarty is clad in a grey toga (an apt compromise for someone who muddles gender stereotypes). During the first two and a half songs he is unlit, a towering silhouette from which gentle yearnings emerge. He's part Morrissey, part Nina Simone, and as the lights slowly brighten, he begins to accompany songs with fragile, birdlike gestures. Later, with arms outstretched on the dissonant Everything is New, there's even a hint of Jessye Norman.
