Rufus Wainwright says that he’s been rehearsing these back-to-back orchestral presentations of Want One and Want Two for three days, “and I feel like I’m on a different planet” – the Canadian singer-songwriter may well have been dreaming about them for 20 years.
Rock artists who enlist an orchestra can sometimes resemble that meme of Winnie the Pooh in a bow tie and monocle – a clumsy grab at classiness – but then the Want albums aren’t really rock. Drawing on chamber-pop, cabaret, opera and the Great American Songbook, with knowing quotations from Ravel and Wagner, these songs were built for opulence. The BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Sarah Hicks and joined by original drummer Matt Johnson, performs the work of several arrangers, each one a sensitive translation. As Wainwright hops between grand piano and acoustic guitar, they know when to roar and when to whisper.
