The superb Irish choral group Anúna.
Picture long, flowing robes and long, flowing pre-Raphaelite hair. (Except for the guys.) Envision silken-voiced sopranos hitting notes so high, dogs two states away stop dead in their tracks and say, “Hey, what the heck was that?”
Yup. That’s Anúna.
Even though the group has been around 20 years—exactly the same age as its youngest member—it only just made its Philadelphia debut on Friday at Penn’s Annenberg Center.
It was not a full house (unfortunately), but director John McGlynn and his band of singers made the best of it.
Anúna is currently flacking a new CD and DVD, “Celtic Origins,” and PBS stations all over the country are promoting the heck out of that performance for fund-raising purposes. No complaints there. Anything that gets the local PBS programmers off the odious André Reieu can only be a good thing.
Anúna’s live performance turns out to as thrilling as what you see on the PBS special. It’s better, actually. In live performance, Anúna takes full advantage of the whole theatre. At the show’s beginning, voices come at the audience out of the dark from all directions, rising and falling, filling the hall with superb, complex harmonies. Eventually, after a bit of mystical meandering, all the singers do wind up on stage, and pretty much remain there for the duration of the show.
In Philadelphia, the group performed several cuts form the new CD and DVD, including “Greensleeves,” “Scarborough Fair” and “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” the latter performed beautifully by the smoky alto Miriam Blennerhassett, the group’s choral mistress and a founding member of Anúna.
There were also some tunes from previous CDs, including the wonder “Winter Fire and Snow,” “Dúlamán,” “Riu Riu,” “Siuil A Ruin” and the haunting “Piè Jesu.”
Small though the audience was, it was hugely appreciative, rewarding the group with a standing ovation. Anúna returned the gesture with a blazing performance of the tongue-twisting “Fionnghuala.” (If you think saying it is hard, try singing it.) If you have no idea what “Fionnghuala” is or what it sounds like, head on over to our YouTube channel for a video I recorded (not a very good one, I’m afraid) during the group’s summer promotional tour at the Center City Borders.
And, if and when Anúna shows up in your neck of the woods again, catch this very polished and memorable act.
