At Sting's concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the little things were indeed magic...

With hands clasped behind his back, Sting - yep, Sting himself - paced Heinz Hall’s stage, occasionally throwing back his head to deliver a particularly raspy line.

The quintessential aging rocker, philanthropist and gentleman.

Sting can and has performed on stages around the world for millions. That he appeared in Heinz, which holds an intimate 3,000 or so, was a unique gift to the Steel City, certainly worthy of the hundreds of surreptitious photos fans snapped from the audience. This isn’t an orchestral tour; it’s a special appearance and program that he only whips out on occasion.

By some sorcery, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was able to ensnare the Police’s former bassist and songwriter for two nights of concerts on Monday and Tuesday in a selection of his hits from across the decades. Tickets have been sold out for months.

How did it happen? Well, some of Sting’s band members happen to be fans of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

“When they came to Lincoln Center, I’ve never heard a better Mahler Symphony 5,” said band leader Rob Mathes, who played keys and wrote most of the orchestral charts for the evening. “The horns especially were ferocious - they took New York by storm.”

Sting, ever the Englishman, retains something of the troubadour about him. He told wry stories from his childhood and about the works he performed, bringing down the house with “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

“I remember the Queen mother visiting my street, waving from her car” he called out, describing his youth in a shipbuilding town in North England. “Our eyes locked a few seconds ... I was infected with the desire to grow beyond my beginnings. I wanted to be in the [expletive] car.”

His voice remains a study in expressivity. Sting’s voice doesn’t have much range in volume due to its hollow, warm timbre - but that isn’t to say it’s weak. (Please put down the pitchforks.) Musical dynamics aren’t about volume, or at least not just volume. They’re about varying the character of sound from gentle and wispy to penetrating and keen to formidable and strong. Sting’s ability to vary his dynamic, his sheer, raw musicality, his quiet charisma, carried the evening.

The orchestra, expertly conducted by the orchestra’s assistant conductor Moon Doh, shined in quicker rhythms and more powerful moments. There were times, however, when the orchestra was mostly long, sustained tones. These can add color and depth to the overall sound, but sometimes obscured some of the nuance of Sting’s vocal work and lyrics.

This could just mean that the blending needs a little fine-tuning.

Working with an orchestra doesn’t automatically elevate a performance - but it can. The variety of instruments, and blend and power behind so many musicians unified by a banner hit like “The End of the Game” is wondrous to behold. And the opportunity to perform with the likes of Sting is a gift to orchestras everywhere, a reminder of the potential for interesting new collaborations between different styles and genres of music.

Just ask the band.

“This orchestra’s at a level where they’re just eating music,” Mathes said in a chat after the concert. “We’ve done this program before, and we’ve played with some great orchestras, but it’s never been quite this good.”

(c) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Jeremy Reynolds

Sting does his thing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra...

It took a few songs to get used to the headset microphone.

That's not a look one associates with Sting, but the rock star must not have wanted any microphone stands limiting his mobility Monday on the opening night of a sold-out, two-show Heinz Hall engagement with the Grammy Award-garnering Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Free to roam, Sting glided around the stage, sporting a slate-gray jacket atop a tight, sheer shirt, showing off a still-enviable physique, at age 71. The Police man began with "Englishman in New York," with the symphony's strings and woodwinds applying whimsical touches.

Sting then sat at a stool, grabbed an acoustic guitar and established this would be a night where he'd share the stories behind his lyrics, beginning with The Police's "Roxanne," the 1978 song that altered his life. He said he wrote "Roxanne" when the then-unknown band was staying in a seedy Paris hotel frequented by prostitutes, lifting the song's title character from the play "Cyrano de Bergerac," for which a poster hung on the wall there.

Red lights backdropped the stage, as Sting's smooth, distinct voice sang the verse "Roxanne/You don't have to put on the red light/Those days are over/You don't have to sell your body to the night."

The night brought many shifting dynamics, from both singer and symphony, with choruses engorged in a rousing mix of woodwinds, strings and percussion, and Sting ending most songs with a big, sweeping vocal flourish.

With lightning-quick hand gestures and glances, he'd stoke audience participation. The audience swiftly figured out their "E-oh oh oh oh oh's" were encouraged at the end of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic."

Sting set up his solo hit "Fields of Gold" with the story of how fame made him do a cliched thing ― buying a castle-sized house in the English countryside ― where the rows of barley inspired that pretty song's visuals.

Sting nailed a dazzling high note that earned an audience roar in "When We Dance," punctuated by a flurry of symphonic cymbals.

Acknowledging his affinity for country-western music, Sting expressed understandable pride about Johnny Cash covering his "Hung My Head." Sting's voice and the PSO applied the well-measured tension to that tale of an accidental fatal shooting of a sibling.

After a 20-minute intermission, the music resumed with Sting, accompanied only by piano and light bass, singing "Practical Arrangement" from his 2013 "The Last Ship" album. More sparse instrumentation gave Sting's soaring voice the lone spotlight on "What Say You, Meg?" from his Broadway musical "The Last Ship." Two-thirds into "The Shape of My Heart" came another of those sweeping, majestic vocal moments.

Before "The Last Ship" title track, Sting explained the album and musical were a way for him to show gratitude to the historic ship-building town where he grew up in northern England.

Next came "Could Have Been" with PSO violinist Justine Campagna adding a nice solo.

One of the night's most dramatic selections was "Russians," Sting's 1985 anti-Cold War song, name-dropping Krushchev and Reagan, which he dedicated to the people of war-torn Ukraine. As the song implies, the Russians love their children, too, though Sting questioned if The Kremlin does.

There'd be two big Police songs left to play, starting with "King of Pain," with fans clapping along, and featuring a breath-taking moment where the violinists did a slow, poignant fade into unexpected silence after the last "There's a little black spot on the sun today" before the next line, "It's the same old thing as yesterday." Moon Doh, the PSO's assistant conductor, pivoted at the podium to face Sting ... waiting, waiting, waiting for the precise moment when the distinguished singer finished one more sweeping vocal flight before directing the musicians to add the song's grand finale.

If you could peel your eyes off Sting, the animated Doh was fun to watch.

Sting sounded as marvelous as ever on The Police's "Every Breath You Take," slipping into rock star mode when he did an I-can't-hear-you gesture to an already cheering crowd that rose to its feet.

The two-song encore began with "Desert Rose," for which Sting invited a female fan on stage to interpretatively dance to lines about the sweet intoxication of love.

Saying he likes to end on a serious note, Sting sat down and strummed acoustically to his anti-violence song "Fragile," which he dedicated to the freedom-seeking women of Iran and to the people of Ukraine.

After a 20-minute intermission, the music resumed with Sting, accompanied only by piano and light bass, singing "Practical Arrangement" from his 2013 "The Last Ship" album. More sparse instrumentation gave Sting's soaring voice the lone spotlight on "What Say You, Meg?" from his Broadway musical "The Last Ship." Two-thirds into "The Shape of My Heart" came another of those sweeping, majestic vocal moments.

Before "The Last Ship" title track, Sting explained the album and musical were a way for him to show gratitude to the historic ship-building town where he grew up in northern England.

Next came "Could Have Been" with PSO violinist Justine Campagna adding a nice solo.

One of the night's most dramatic selections was "Russians," Sting's 1985 anti-Cold War song, name-dropping Krushchev and Reagan, which he dedicated to the people of war-torn Ukraine. As the song implies, the Russians love their children, too, though Sting questioned if The Kremlin does.

There'd be two big Police songs left to play, starting with "King of Pain," with fans clapping along, and featuring a breath-taking moment where the violinists did a slow, poignant fade into unexpected silence after the last "There's a little black spot on the sun today" before the next line, "It's the same old thing as yesterday." Moon Doh, the PSO's assistant conductor, pivoted at the podium to face Sting ... waiting, waiting, waiting for the precise moment when the distinguished singer finished one more sweeping vocal flight before directing the musicians to add the song's grand finale.

If you could peel your eyes off Sting, the animated Doh was fun to watch.

Sting sounded as marvelous as ever on The Police's "Every Breath You Take," slipping into rock star mode when he did an I-can't-hear-you gesture to an already cheering crowd that rose to its feet.

The two-song encore began with "Desert Rose," for which Sting invited a female fan on stage to interpretatively dance to lines about the sweet intoxication of love.

Saying he likes to end on a serious note, Sting sat down and strummed acoustically to his anti-violence song "Fragile," which he dedicated to the freedom-seeking women of Iran and to the people of Ukraine.

In hindsight, there'll be setlist quibbles. The addition of another Police song would have been welcome, or I'd have enjoyed another of Sting's popular solo hits like "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" or "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free."

Sound-wise, there were times Sting's vocals got overpowered in the mix.

Though overall, a thoroughly enjoyable evening from a legend in stellar form, on his first Pittsburgh area appearance in 14 years.

(c) Beaver County Times by Scott Tady