Music / A Bridal Kiss, a Goose’s Tale and Auto Sales. Polifemy and Blocksounds. At Wesley Uniting Church, May 17. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN.

In a little over an hour this enchanting concert zipped on a musical journey around the world in a most engaging and enjoyable trip into pleasures of delightful sounds.

Robyn Mellor, recorder virtuoso and stalwart of music in Canberra, is the director of both Polifemy, an acapella women’s vocal ensemble, and Blocksounds, a quartet named after the German name for recorder.

Together the two ensembles presented a light hearted and most pleasant concert of contemporary vocal and recorder music.

Music by American choral director Norman Luboff opened proceedings with Nine Vignettes from Much Ado About Nothings. The first of the short pieces, Punctuality, immediately set the relaxed tone for the afternoon when one of the six-member Polifemy ensemble ran on to the stage late, missing the start of the song by just “that much”.

A little green prop appeared in An Apple a Day then a love song about love and potatoes was accompanied by the appearance of said vegetable. These little touches established the atmosphere for the concert but the comedic moments were matched by excellent singing from Polifemy. Harmony was spot on, phrase endings were wonderfully neat and balance between the six singers was outstanding.

The first of three brackets was entitled Fun, Frivolity and Festivity and after the vocal American opening it was off to Africa with the Blocksounds recorder quartet for a delve into a birthday celebration. From there to a Jewish wedding party with recorders of every shape and size partying at a reception which even included the image of a groom crushing his wedding glass with his foot, a strong Jewish tradition.

Part two headed to Germany for a display of musical humour with five fables beautifully sung in the clipped and clean German language. The provided program notes (by Robyn Mellor) were comprehensive, most informative and welcome but, even without, the singing from Polifemy was so good that the mood and atmosphere of each story of the Goose, Donkey, Baa-wolf, Fly then Hawk and Toad were portrayed with such clarity and accuracy that each story was understandable even without translation.

To end part two a delightful Catch (an Angel) with recorders capturing the fluttering of little birds with perfect interacting phrases, which were as seamless as the birds themselves may have been.

More humour in part three and an enjoyable new experience – a work for spoken choir investigating purchase of a vehicle at a dodgy used car lot. With rapid speech, fine diction was a necessity and it was delivered in spades.

To amplify the musicianship of the performers the recorder players joined Polifemy to sing Crying in My Subaru then, again with the aid of a suitable prop, the concert closed with a mixture of South America and Scottish influences in Three Ways to Vacuum Your House.

This inventive programming was a triumph for Robyn Mellor and her two talented performance teams. It was light hearted, happy and fun, but the performance standard never deviated from being seriously excellent.