Symphonic Rock Recordings 2023
Marking another important date in the legendary group’s enchanted journey, a fresh on-stage report finds the art-rock scene stalwarts in top form.
The Legacy Tour 2022
It looks like not only RENAISSANCE followers have reconciled with the fact that their favorite performers of pop-symphonies will never release a new studio album after Michael Dunford’s death, but the band themselves also came to grips with this – which is why the collective’s live recordings, released every once in two or three years now, must be distinctly different. Indeed, the setlist of the veterans’ 2019’s outings – preserved on "50th Anniversary - Ashes Are Burning" and the repertoire featured here don’t have a lot in common, apart from both concert documents celebrating a certain milestone in the ensemble’s long timeline, as the latter focuses on Annie Haslam‘s 75th spin around the sun and five decades since the singer joined the group she’s been leading since 2012. Hence the splitting of the show between the warbler’s solo pieces and her troupe’s classics as well as reinstating of a few songs from Dunford’s final trek with them.
Of course, by now the audience are familiar with the brass lick piercing acoustic strum of customary opener “Carpet Of The Sun” but on “The Legacy Tour” its breeziness is overshadowed by the incendiary drama of “Black Flame” that’s gradually fanned with piano, strings and vocal harmonies before Haslam’s ethereal pipes erect a stunningly nuanced aural edifice and pass the theatrical momentum to “The Sisters” that Rave Tesar’s ivories infuse with expectancy which Mark Lambert’s flamenco-laced guitar and Leo Traversa’s delicate bass add dynamic touches to while the orchestra and male voices stage an oratorio. As though to contrast this European slant, the percussion-driven raga of "Ananda" sees Annie and her ensemble seamlessly, and impressively, cross over to Eastern scales. However, the sextet bounce back to the chamber embers of “The Captive Heart” and the epically translucent spectrum of “Symphony Of Light” whose charms merely precede the collective’s dive into the majestically shimmering, almost a cappella "Blessing In Disguise" and the chanteuse’s self-titled platter whence she will pluck the fluttering, woodwind-washed “Celestine” and, further on, “The Angels Cry” where the band’s vibrant delivery and resonant approach to a precious tune reach heavenly clarity.
All these fantasies seem to accumulate in the soft drift of “Reaching Out” and the inspired flight of “Day Of The Dreamer” – and triumphantly alight when the ever-intrepid “Running Hard” showers the public with a final emotional closure. The result is truly cathartic, so even if there will be no more studio works from the ensemble their place in eternity must be already secured.
*****
