Zurich Tonhalle musicians play Taylor Swift
OrchestrasFour members of Zurich’s internationally renowned Tonhalle Orchestra have got so excited at the prospect of Taylor Swift performances on July 9 and 10 that they have issued an instrumental arrangement of her hit, Anti-Hero.
The musicians involed are Ewa Grzywna-Groblewska, Mattia Zappa, Filipe Johnson, Andreas Berger. The video is sponsored and disseminated by Zurich Tourism.
The original sounds like this.
This is great to see in Europe at a high level although it seems like a copycat of Candlelight Quartet playing non classical works. However, I have been to a Candlelight concert in New York where the quartet was not prepared. Are the freelancers worse than the full time orchestra musicians?
The idea of string quartets playing arrangements of pop hits is hardly exclusive to Candlelight Concerts: it’s been going on for decades.
Absolute garbage.
Awful.
I’d never heard Taylor Swift till I watched this video. It seems like typical go-for-the-teen-audience stuff, and she has a pleasant pop voice. But to my surprise, because I know pop music has its place, I agree with the poster who called it “garbage.” And while it may be entertaining for the teens, it certainly is not musically interesting enough for a “classical” arrangement.
If this is what classical artists feel they have to do to remain “relevant” in Switzerland, I dread to imagine what horrors lie ahead at the CBSO.
T.S. is mediocrity incarnated. But what a publicity machine!
Somehow I don’t see Taylor Swift reciprocating by singing Mozart lieder.
God forbid.
I remember the late Dolores O’Riordan, of The Cranberries — a much better voice than TS and offering much better popular music. She duetted on the Schubert Ave Maria with Pav. Her notes were lovely and clear, and her range fine for it. But her breathing was preposterous — she took breaths where no self-respecting singer would ever do, or have to. And she did not sustain the tempo of the arrangement, or hold the notes to the time they needed.
Pop singers are simply not trained (with few exceptions) to sing serious music.