Arranger Daniel Moore has pulled together a collection of Tori Amos songs spanning her career and arranged them for string, piano, bass and vocal. The performance, simply titled “The Songs of Tori Amos”, is a 75-minute bombastic tour of her career with some surprising choices. Top shock is an extended version of “Hotel” with beautifully elegant additions to lead into the chorus and some fierce bellows when we get there. “Shattering Sea” is equally booming with drama and horror as the strings squeal. “The Beekeeper” sees the string quartet and bass form part melody, part wooden percussion machine in a great switch-up. “Wildwood” is sumptuous with its lush and longing arrangement that feels more Bjork in her Homogenic era than Tori in this clothing. Magaret MacDonald does a great job on piano and the string players are gushing with emotion too. Nadya Hill, the Soprano vocalist, flexes her dynamic range and does her own classical take on Tori’s work.
I love that some of these arrangements are more daring than the Gold Dust album and more in line with some of the more dramatic arrangements from the 2014 tour. Enjoy the concert in full below. Aside from this video, I know nothing of how the project runs or came together but I’d love to find out more if anyone knows!