Live Review: The Music Of Giorgio Moroder

Promotion material for Heritage Orchestra's presentation of The Music Of Moroder went to great lengths to stress that the great Italian composer/producer Giorgio Moroder would not appear at the event. But he did appear and an Opera House full of electro worshippers lost their shit.

The Great Man joined the Orchestra for an encore that included him narrating the track that has helped bring him back to prominence, Daft Punk's respectful tribute Giorgio By Moroder. But this was a night of highlights that saw Moroder's back catalogue of disco, pop and soundtrack work reimagined by the UK orchestra.

The room was rammed with people who spent the best part of the past few decades grinding crotches on drug-fuelled dancefloors to the come-fuck-me-beats of Moroder – now they sat in an Opera House watching a lifetime's obsession given credence. The arrangements were lush and often the sheer intensity was overwhelming. At times guest vocalist Liela Moss (The Duke Spirit) seemed to completely lose herself in the music. Moss danced herself into a frenzy during her takes on the epic From Here To Eternity and disco anthem I Feel Love (earning her one of the night's three standing ovations – the other two belonging to Moroder's entry and the end of the evening). But most amazingly, Moss took the usually tepid Take My Breath Away and created a... yes, really... breath-taking rendition of the Top Gun theme.

Other guests included Noisettes' Shingai Shoniwa who won the crowd over with a sensual performance of Love To Love You Baby worthy of the song's original singer Donna Summer. And Anna Calvi put her distinct stamp on David Bowie's Cat People theme and blew minds with her stirring balladic reading of Flashdance... What A Feeling. It was, without doubt, the ultimate night of disco strings.