As you can see from my reviews, guitar music is my bread an butter. But over the years I’ve become more open to other genres. My collection of classical music has grown substantially in the last decade and I try to catch a few Proms every summer. One composer I’m a big fan of, is Estonian minimalist composer Arvo Pärt. In my opinion some of his music is simply sublime. With it being Easter week, Westminster Abbey’s choir decided to perform his Passio – Pärt’s setting of St John’s passion. This piece is one of my least favourite Part pieces. But I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to hear a performance in the Abbey.
I find the Passio a difficult piece to listen to on CD. Although it’s a striking piece, it’s performed entirely in Latin so it’s difficult to follow. But live, in an abbey, with an English translation, the piece really came alive. The baritone playing Jesus brought a dignity to Jesus’s responses that doesn’t come across in my recordings of the piece. As often happens when I see a performance of a piece for a choir, the speciality adds nuances that are missing from CD and tonight’s performance was no different. Overall it was definitely worth watching.
I love 2001, it’s one my favourite films. Part of the love of the film is that the music is ‘just right’. Kubrick had commissioned a score for the film but decided to use existing classical pieces. We’ll never know how well the commissioned score would have worked. But we do know how well the chosen pieces worked.
I’ve only ever managed to catch the film on the big screen once, and that was an old dirty print. Over the years I’ve managed to catch performances of a few of the pieces at the BBC Proms, such as the Ligeti pieces used in the film. I absolutely love the Ligeti pieces when they’re played live. So this event was the perfect opportunity to watch the film, complete with a new high def digital print with the entire score played with an orchestra and choir. There was no way I could miss this.
Unlike similar events such as Lord Of The Rings where it’s crucial for the orchestra to synchronise their music with action. The music in 2001 was always an accompaniment to the film so the edit doesn’t tie what little action their is as closely to the music as it would have done with a commissioned score. This gives the conductor more freedom to pace the music and tonight’s performance was simply wonderful. So unlike previous events, the conductor appeared to by working from scores without any LCD timing aids.
From the very first minute of the opening fanfare of Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’, this was a pleasure to experience. But it was my favourite Ligeti pieces that were the highlight. Seeing them with the visual accompaniment highlighted only added to the primeval power in those pieces.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before this is played again. I really would love experience this event again.
Rhythms of the World is two day ‘town’ festival in Hitchin. It markets itself as a ‘World Music’ festival but it’s increasingly becoming a festival that’s based around indie and rock and roll, as represented through the large number of local bands. The festival has grown substantially over the last decade and has become an important date in Hertfordshire’s calendar. At £7 per day, it’s cheep, however, it’s expensive compared to the free concerts many towns now provide.
I’m from Middlesbrough and both Middlesbrough and Stockton provide free festivals featuring known acts. This year Stockton’s Riverside Festival included British Sea Power, Human League, Mercury Rev, along with many up and coming acts and comedy acts. These festivals are organised and supported by the local councils and attract large crowds from outside of the towns.
ROTW used to be a free festival, based within Hitchin’s town centre. But unfortunately Hitchin is a posh southern market town full of middle-class families who, rather than controlling their kids, blamed the festival when their children got pissed during the festival weekend. So a few years ago, a decision was taken to move the festival to Hitchin Priory so that the it could be policed. Since the council doesn’t finance the festival, this meant a charge had to be introduced. Unfortunately the move in my opinion has had a detremental effect on the festival because this changed the nature of the festival and to be honest it also means the music has to justify the admission price, and this year there were slim pickings.
One problem the festival suffers from is an over familiarity of the acts, with many returning each year. Some of the local acts often aren’t good enough for such a large stage and the ‘introducing’ stage is full of ‘college bands’ playing skater rock, or bland indie. The ‘world’ aspect is often covered by white middle-aged middle-class people playing ‘ethnic’ music, or some so called ‘traditional’ north African band playing electric guitars, along with a few bands playing some sort of eastern european ‘roots’ music. This year in particular seemed to be devoid of world music. Some of the acts are just plain wrong – with one act in particular turning up each year with a different ‘world’ artist in tow. Maybe I’m just too cynical but I suspect that they’re not doing it to make people aware of different styles of music but use these artists as a means of touring summer festivals. This may sound harsh but I hate people who present themselves as ‘new age’, when instead they using other people to freeload.
I know this is sounding pretty scathing and it’s not meant to be, but I guess the point I’m making is that I no longer see an unique selling point. Afterall £14 is cheap for a two day festival, but once on-site you cannot leave and return without paying for re-admission, so you are reliant on the on-site concessions and it all starts to cost. Many people seem to turn up, find a stage and stay there and this leads to feeling that the event is overcrowded. In the town centre, this wasn’t a problem, people would move around and it never felt overcrowded and it was easy to drop into a shop or pub for food and drink. Although the organisation is really effective, hosting 6 stages in a big field means doesn’t have the same atmosphere as holding the events in different ‘nooks and crannies’ around Hitchin town centre and the new stage layout discourages unamplified music (they used to use Hitchin’s church for acoustic music – while the equivalent stage suffers badly from sound leakage). This year, with more and more bands selected who play music of ‘american’ origin (rock, blues, rap, country, ‘americana’), seemed to really lack the ‘world’ music that gave the town centre festival it’s fantastic mix. Unfortunately this year’s festival was more Radio 1/2 than Radio 3/6. Hopefully next year, they’ll find a way of restoring the balance.
Anyway highlights:
17 Hippies – excellent german band playing a wide-range of European styles
Trailer Trash Orchestra* – A country/rock sound with attitude
I like a bit of Phillip Glass. Although his work had become predictable, maybe even pedestrian, it’s always a sound I like. His violin concerto is one of my favourite pieces if music. So despite everything, I look forward to a new piece of hid music
‘Icarus at the Edge of Time’, is a new collaborative piece between Glass, a physist (Brian Greene) and some artists (Al + Al). It’s a science fiction short story with the emphasis on science
Before the piece, a movement from John Adam’s ‘Doctor Atomic’ symphony about Oppenheimer. It’s the first I’d heard the piece and it’s something I will be listening to again
Before the main event, Brian Greene gave a quick intro to the science behind Icarus. It was all basic stuff and I always find it disturbing that many people don’t have an understanding of the basics of physics. His intro was brief and convieyed the basics of relativity.
Icarus was narrated by the actor David Morresy and tells the story of a young ‘genius’ who’s on the generational ship Prometheus, on a journey between Earth and the nearest star outside our solar system, where life has been detected. A journey destined to take 100s of years. Something Icarus deems to be totally unfair.
On encountering a black hole. Icarus takes it upon himself to fly his prototype shuttle near to the event horizon, forgetting about the effect gravity will have on time. Catapulting himself thousands of years into his ship’s future, but minutes of his own.
The music was typically Glass. In fact it had a feeling of ‘music by nunbers’. With many sections seemingly liftened from some of Glasses more recent symphonies. Ths narration and was great as were the visuals. As a combined interactive piece, Icarus was very enjoyable. As a piece of music, I probably I would have felt a little bit short changed.
Personal journal of Paul Hudson, collecting my pictures, videos and the occasional review of the gigs I attend. If you want to use photos and videos from this site, please do.
