Music Reviews : King’s Singers Keep Their Balance

How do the King’s Singers choose their programs? Someone must spin a globe and then the others take turns throwing darts at it--or so things seemed at Royce Hall Sunday night.

The Singers began the evening way out in left field, with five mostly exquisite Japanese folk songs, ranging from engaging simulations of a village band to the most delicate pianissimo harmonies. Then they doubled back to Merrie England for five polished, clearly enunciated Renaissance madrigals.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, they whizzed down to South Africa for a commissioned suite, “Lalela Zulu,” which employed a wide variety of local rhythms, smooth dignified harmonies and even some authentic clicking syllables.

After changing their ties, they put their own spin on Johann Strauss Jr., be it a touch of staccato slapstick (“Perpetuum Mobile”) or a silly yuppies-in-the-park tale somewhat based on “Tales From the Vienna Woods.” To wrap it all up, the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” led off a pop set that also included a surprisingly sensitive treatment of Phil Collins’ “Father to Son” and a grooving Bobby McFerrin-like workout on the Gershwins’ “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down.”

It was an eclectic outpouring that could make your head spin. Yet everything was unified by the six-man a cappella team’s distinctive wide-range sound, beautifully balanced from the soaring countertenors down to the solid bass end.

For encores, they ranged even further afield with a wah-wah brass tribute to Duke Ellington’s “Creole Love Call” and another nod to Dr. King with U2’s “MLK.”