Last Updated on March 25, 2026
Classical with a Hint of Swing Upstairs at Ronnie’s
4.0 out of 5.0 starsLegendary Soho jazz club, Ronnie Scott’s, has forayed into new musical territory with a dedicated weekly classical night hosted in their newly refurbished upstairs venue. Bringing together artists, composers, and session players from the world of orchestral music, the Monday evening classical shows at Upstairs at Ronnie’s are a stark and welcome alternative to the club’s usual offering.
Masterminded by violinist and vocalist, Lizzie Ball, alongside Ronnie Scott’s Artistic Director, James Pearson, the inauguration of regular classical nights has included the formation of an in- house chamber group – Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars. With Ball and Pearson at the helm, audiences are invited to engage with the many facets of classical music in the intimate jazz club setting we have long associated with Ronnie’s.
Since closing for renovation in 2024, Upstairs at Ronnie’s has undergone a complete transformation, taking the cosy, low-lit character of the jazz club to a new extreme. With floral carpeting on the walls and floors, beige upholstery, dark wood panelling, and warm yellow table lamps, Upstairs at Ronnie’s is an elegant space – a high-end, West End club for discerning patrons and a far cry from the average independent music venue in London.
Monday 16th March saw Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars present the first show in their Cinematic Sounds series, celebrating iconic orchestral themes from some of cinema’s earliest hits. After taking to the stage quietly, the musicians launched into the Universal Pictures fanfare to the surprise and amusement of the audience.
It was with this tongue-in-cheek tone that the evening continued, with Pearson and Ball interspersing the setlist with anecdotes about the history of film music and their own experiences as session musicians for major Hollywood titles. This was as much a joy for them as the audience, with the emotive, exaggerative style of the soundtracks allowing the musicians to indulge in luscious, sweeping vibrato and dramatic dynamic changes. Ball quipped that by emulating the iconic, lush Hollywood sound, the strings of her violin were “vibrating off the stage”.
Pearson’s arrangements of classic film scores for this chamber group were highly accomplished, taking us from the themes of Robin Hood (1938) and King Kong (1933), to Now, Voyager (1942) and Gone with the Wind (1939) in the opening minutes. Given that many of these scores were composed for a full orchestra, the eight musicians did well to carry the full emotion of these themes, from the haunting, steady strings of Now, Voyager to the intense, up-tempo dissonance of King Kong.
Following with a rendition of “Laura” from the eponymous 1944 film, the All Stars paid homage to the club’s jazz roots, with an arrangement reminiscent of Charlie Parker with Strings. Here, however, the instrumentation felt sparse, achieving neither the highs of great orchestral film scores nor the quality we expect from jazz at Ronnie Scott’s and exposing the difficulty of adapting film scores for a chamber setting.
Yet this unhappy middle ground was soon left behind with a brilliant exploration of Alfred Hitchcock’s film soundtracks, spotlighting the director’s long-time collaborator Bernard Herrmann. Ball admitted that it was a “twisted fantasy” to play the music from Psycho at Ronnie Scott’s, and as the screeching strings from the film’s famous “Murder” theme began, the audience recoiled in what was surely the intended reaction.
Shifting away from film scores, two songs with notable features in Hollywood epics were performed: firstly, “Intermezzo” from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, which provides the emotional backdrop to a poignant scene in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Next was the Latin American standard “Bésame Mucho” by Consuelo Velázquez, which appears in Follow the Boys (1944), perhaps the show’s highlight as the ensemble delved into Latin grooves and Ball took to the microphone.
Pearson, so far providing understated accompaniment, at last had a chance to shine on the piano in a rendition of the Warsaw Concerto by Richard Adinsell, written for the film Dangerous Moonlight (1941).
With great delight from the audience and the musicians alike, the show closed with a rousing play-through of “I Wanna Be Loved By You”, made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the endless hilarity that is Some Like It Hot (1959). With Ball back on vocals and the ensemble in their element, Ronnie Scott’s Classical All Stars ended on a high.
Yes, there were minor slip-ups and fractions of moments where the audience could tell that this was not a highly-rehearsed set – after all, the group plays a new show every week. But just as one could not help tapping a foot to the timeless soundtracks of those classic films, it was near impossible to resist the joy with which Pearson, Ball, and their band presented the arrangements.
For those looking to explore orchestral music in an intimate, informal, and tasteful setting, search no further than Monday classical nights at Upstairs at Ronnie’s, where audiences will be swept away by Pearson and Ball’s charm and the skill and passion of their new ensemble.
Upstairs at Ronnie’s Classical Series on Monday Nights
Ronnie Scott’s
47 Frith Street,
Soho,
W1D 4HT
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