(Editor’s note: Columns may contain opinion.)
With the sun still streaming through Sacred Heart Cultural Center’s beautiful stained-glass panes, the 6:30 p.m. start time for the candlelight concert didn’t provide the full ambience that one with an opening number after sunset might.
Despite the lack of darkness, the sea of candles at the former Catholic church altar and the stunning stained glass provided a romantic backdrop on July 18 as the sounds of a string quartet swelled in the historic venue. The musicians presented the songs of the super group, Queen.
“We’ve been doing these since last October,” said Millie Huff, executive director of Sacred Heart Cultural Center.
Known as Candlelight by Fever, the concerts are played in cities around the world. The production company contacted her about a year ago and Huff admitted being skeptical at first.
“We do get weird calls, and we’ve had to turn opportunities away,” she said.
The organizers, she said, like to pick unique venues in keeping with their theme.
They play a variety of contemporary artists such as Coldplay, Adele and Taylor Swift. They also performed Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
Usually, they perform two concerts per night. Sometimes, they repeat the show, but on July 18, the first hour was for Queen with the second one for Taylor Swift’s music.
I’d seen photos of the event and signed up for their newsletter. It sounded interesting. Since Queen and front man Freddie Mercury provided the soundtrack for much of my childhood and teen years, I opted for the Queen concert.
The four stringed instruments lent themselves well to most of the pieces. Every two to three songs one of the musicians would give a little background on the next set providing nuggets of trivia that I’d never heard in some cases.
I knew that MTV had banned the group’s “I Want to Break Free” with the cross dressing band members, but I didn’t know that the 1978 song “Don’t Stop Me Now,” which Thursday’s concert opened with was a song the band never played on U.S. soil.
Throughout the night I heard light humming and a low whistle as audience members kept in sync with songs such as “Killer Queen” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” And surely, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to clap and stomp on “We Will Rock You” or bang my head on “Bohemian Rhapsody”?
I did find one song particularly haunting, especially in the setting. The grand former Catholic church had darkened from the approaching summer thunderstorm, giving the candles greater power.
And one of the musicians introduced “The Show Must Go On,” the song written by Brian May that Freddie Mercury sang only a few short weeks before his November 1991 death from complications with HIV/AIDS.
Segments of the song are written in B minor, a key known to evoke melancholy and sadness. And the words of the song echoing hope in the midst of impending death summon similar feelings.
The narration before the tune was played recounted Mercury’s conversation with May who wanted Mercury to sing the song but wondered if he was able. The disease had left him frail.
Mercury reportedly said to May “I’ll (expletive) do it, darling” and downed a shot of vodka before singing it. And some say it was one of the best things he ever sang.
Before the concert’s end, one of the violinists gave a plug to the Augusta Symphony, urging patrons to seek out more music by classically trained musicians.
Huff said they will be back in the fall, and she hopes they will do ABBA when they return.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
