Seductive Strings

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Vitamin String Quartet at Warwick Arts Centre.

Vitamin String Quartet, Warwick Arts Centre, 16 March.

Review by Hilary Hopker

You may have heard of this quartet or you might not, but one thing’s for sure, if you’re a Bridgerton fan you will have already heard their music. Most string quartets specialise in classical music, but the Vitamin String Quartet take top classical talent and apply it to popular music. Their string versions of modern pop songs have been featured in the Bridgerton TV series, which has brought their unique style to a mass audience.

Support act Tom Speight opened the show and warmed up the crowd in a busy Butterworth Hall. Announcing that he’s ‘big in Brazil’, his singer songwriter style music has also been popular in the UK, with his albums sitting in the top 75. He guided us towards the main act with an interactive set that got the audience singing and clapping along.

Then, lights dimmed, the Vitamin String Quartet came onto stage. Dressed in long silver satin gowns, the female violin and viola players looked like they might have just stepped off the Bridgerton set. They were accompanied by two men on violin and cello.

Reviewer Hilary (centre) and friend meet Tom Speight.

They got straight into the set with a Billy Eilish number before moving onto Aha’s Take on Me. They had judged the audience well, as many were teenagers when it was last in the top 10. Next, we heard some of the songs from the Bridgerton series before moving onto the movie soundtrack for Studio Ghiblis’ ‘Howls Moving Castle’.

The strings really came into their own on a dramatic, high-energy version of Brittney Spears’ Toxic. There were some more late 80s classics before the set went bang up-to-date with a beautiful version of Golden from the recent K-Pop Demon Hunters movie. Towards the end the rapt audience were visibly moved by a rendition of Coldplay’s Mellow.

I hadn’t anticipated a string quartet to be so high energy and entertaining so the concert was a delightful surprise. It also provided the perfect excuse to watch all four Bridgerton series again.

Discover more from Warwick Arts Centre: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/