I need help. What is there apart from empty rumty-tum, trivial jollity - well, and the odd good tune - in Bellini's bel canto operas?
I remember when it happened, the first - and only - time I ever fell asleep in an opera. Jane Eaglen was on stage in one of her career-defining roles as the heroine in Bellini's Norma at Scottish Opera in Glasgow. And as a callow teenager, I didn't know how lucky I was to be hearing this stellar performance, and somewhere during Act 2, I think, I fell into a slumber. I think I may have quite enjoyed Casta Diva, but that was about it. Thing is, after castigating myself for my philistine snooze, I then started to blame Bellini. Was it something in the music that made me unable to resist the temptation for 40 winks? The rumty-tum of his accompaniments, the banality of the melodies, the transparency of his orchestrations, the apparent disconnect between the emotional trajectory of the story and the near-continuous triviality and joviality of the music (well, the music I heard, that is, before my eyelids closed)? I tried more bel canto with Donizetti, but found The Elixir of Love almost as trite, and only Verdi and Puccini of the Italians had moments of real expressive depth.
Or so I thought as a probably - ok, certainly! - rather pompous, musically Germanophile teenager. I now realise the error of my ways with Verdi and Puccini, but Bellini, Donizetti? I'm still not there. Alright, when you hear a Natalie Dessay or a Juan Diego Florez sing it, there's am irresistibly voluptuous pleasure at hearing singing and virtuosity of that quality. That I understand. But apart from momentary glimpses of great tunes, I still need a Bellini and bel canto epiphany. It's possible I'll find it at Opera North and their new Norma that opened on Saturday - at least, I hope so. Otherwise, I'm with Tchaikovsky - who admittedly loved Bellini's tunes but could see his shortcomings, too - and called aspects of his operas vapid...vulgar...trivial". How can I, and Pytor Ilyich, be converted?...
Monday, January 30, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Rihm at 60...
Wolfgang Rihm has composed so much – over 400 scores and counting – that there is always a huge backlog still to be heard in Britain. So the London Sinfonietta could include three UK premieres in its 60th-birthday tribute to the German composer, all superbly conducted by Thierry Fischer. Alongside them were works by two of Rihm's best-known pupils – an austere quartet for bass clarinet, accordion, piano and double-bass by Rebecca Saunders, and Jörg Widmann's beery, Bavarian Dubairische Tänze, which puts a sequence of ländler and marches through the postmodern blender.
Cycles and continuing series of pieces do give some sense of shape and perspective to Rihm's vast output, and all the three pieces in the Sinfonietta programme had family connections. Ricercare, a raw, angry processional, was one of a clutch of works written in memory of Luigi Nono in the early 90s, while Nach-Schrift, of 2004, picks up the threads of the Chiffre cycle from the 80s for a feisty encounter between a solo piano (Andrew Zolinsky) and ensemble. Will Sound More Again for 21 players, completed last year, develops ideas from Will Sound, from six years ago, now allowing fierce, reedy attacks and moments of reflection to infiltrate its jagged, fizzing lines.
The following evening at St Giles' Cripplegate, the Arditti Quartet included the UK premiere of another Rihm work in a concert that also signalled the start of the Barbican's Jonathan Harvey weekend with a performance of his Second Quartet. Rihm's Quartet No 13, which the Ardittis introduced last week in Paris, is a mostly brooding single movement lasting more than 20 minutes, whose early hyperactivity seems almost laboured. As with so many of his works, it appears like another slice from the same great creative mass, which seems apparently infinite in its variety and potential.
Cycles and continuing series of pieces do give some sense of shape and perspective to Rihm's vast output, and all the three pieces in the Sinfonietta programme had family connections. Ricercare, a raw, angry processional, was one of a clutch of works written in memory of Luigi Nono in the early 90s, while Nach-Schrift, of 2004, picks up the threads of the Chiffre cycle from the 80s for a feisty encounter between a solo piano (Andrew Zolinsky) and ensemble. Will Sound More Again for 21 players, completed last year, develops ideas from Will Sound, from six years ago, now allowing fierce, reedy attacks and moments of reflection to infiltrate its jagged, fizzing lines.
The following evening at St Giles' Cripplegate, the Arditti Quartet included the UK premiere of another Rihm work in a concert that also signalled the start of the Barbican's Jonathan Harvey weekend with a performance of his Second Quartet. Rihm's Quartet No 13, which the Ardittis introduced last week in Paris, is a mostly brooding single movement lasting more than 20 minutes, whose early hyperactivity seems almost laboured. As with so many of his works, it appears like another slice from the same great creative mass, which seems apparently infinite in its variety and potential.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Behind the music: Political music tries to break down barriers – on the streets and on the radio
The music community has been oddly quiet in a period of turmoil. But Murkage are an act who are trying to make their voice heard, despite the problems it causes them
In the past few years I've been amazed and depressed at the dearth of artists getting politicised. There's been barely a peep from musicians, even as we suffer financial meltdowns, huge inequalities, bankers getting off scot-free while public spending is slashed. But where are the songs on the radio addressing this? While many hip-hop artists rap about all the money they make and how they spend it, many of their fans are sinking further into poverty.
But Murkage, a Manchester rap crew "with a punk attitude", who describe their music as "a grimy clarion call to freedom booming through underground speakerboxes worldwide", are intent on changing that. The band's latest track, Torches, is even framed by Alessio Rastani's eurozone speech on BBC News. The track has run into difficulties when it comes to radio play because of some of its lyrics. One verse in particular seems to have caused problems with programmers: "Wise men talk smack on the TV/ Now they wanna blame blacks on the TV/ Synonymously MCs talking/ Straps and cash and gash on the TV/ I woulda never looted Mac D's/ I woulda kidnapped MPs/ I woulda clapped up the bankers/ Then run up in Scotland Yard on a shankers."
I'd say it's more likely someone would think it's OK to hit their girlfriend after listening to Love the Way You Lie than decide to go out and kidnap an MP after listening to Torches. "It's a call to the kids involved in the riots to reject the materialism they're assaulted by daily and tackle the real powers that are driving the situation they are in," explains David "Murkage Dave" Lewis, who wrote and rapped those lyrics. "I'm not encouraging violence, I'm just trying to illustrate what's important and what's not."
Though the chorus itself ("Set it off, kick down doors, leave your city in flames – Murkage is a freight train") alludes to the riots, Lewis says it's really a metaphor for the band's attitude to life, which is to never let anyone hold you down.
I asked band member Gaika what he meant by these lyrics: "Road youts on a Ghengis tip press pause/ Go loot a cause/ 'Cause when you get that boot through the door … trust me! You have fi know who fi war."
"This is the exact opposite of inciting rioting," he explains. "We are telling the road youts – kids in the street – to get a cause, to understand the reasons behind their anger. And when they've got that, to do something positive about it. Booting through the door means casting aside the barriers to power. 'You have fi know who fi war' is old Jamaican patois for you have to know who to fight – to know your enemy."
UK radio stations sometimes decline to play records because their lyrical content might upset listeners. A radio plugger told me one BBC station wouldn't play a track that had the word "surf" in the title as it thought it might offend people after the cruise liner sank in the Mediterranean, and Capital Radio didn't initially want to play Ed Sheeran's A Team because it was about a drug-addicted prostitute.
But Murkage have noticed a double standard. "It seems to be that young black musicians are rewarded for talking about guns and money and degrading women, and then villainised when it's convenient to the media," says Lewis. "There's a system in place that allows records about shooting our peers, drug dealing and wanton materialism, but doesn't allow us to challenge the powers that be, even hypothetically."
Fortunately for the band, a number of BBC 1Xtra DJs have taken a liking to the track and it appears that, after some consideration, the station will now go ahead and play it (hopefully without resorting to bleeping out any words). 1xtra is a vital outlet and supporter of emerging UK acts – and many of them eventually attract the wider audience of Radio 1 – so it's good to see the station supporting a track with a message that doesn't succumb to the stereotypes Lewis is talking about.
In the past few years I've been amazed and depressed at the dearth of artists getting politicised. There's been barely a peep from musicians, even as we suffer financial meltdowns, huge inequalities, bankers getting off scot-free while public spending is slashed. But where are the songs on the radio addressing this? While many hip-hop artists rap about all the money they make and how they spend it, many of their fans are sinking further into poverty.
But Murkage, a Manchester rap crew "with a punk attitude", who describe their music as "a grimy clarion call to freedom booming through underground speakerboxes worldwide", are intent on changing that. The band's latest track, Torches, is even framed by Alessio Rastani's eurozone speech on BBC News. The track has run into difficulties when it comes to radio play because of some of its lyrics. One verse in particular seems to have caused problems with programmers: "Wise men talk smack on the TV/ Now they wanna blame blacks on the TV/ Synonymously MCs talking/ Straps and cash and gash on the TV/ I woulda never looted Mac D's/ I woulda kidnapped MPs/ I woulda clapped up the bankers/ Then run up in Scotland Yard on a shankers."
I'd say it's more likely someone would think it's OK to hit their girlfriend after listening to Love the Way You Lie than decide to go out and kidnap an MP after listening to Torches. "It's a call to the kids involved in the riots to reject the materialism they're assaulted by daily and tackle the real powers that are driving the situation they are in," explains David "Murkage Dave" Lewis, who wrote and rapped those lyrics. "I'm not encouraging violence, I'm just trying to illustrate what's important and what's not."
Though the chorus itself ("Set it off, kick down doors, leave your city in flames – Murkage is a freight train") alludes to the riots, Lewis says it's really a metaphor for the band's attitude to life, which is to never let anyone hold you down.
I asked band member Gaika what he meant by these lyrics: "Road youts on a Ghengis tip press pause/ Go loot a cause/ 'Cause when you get that boot through the door … trust me! You have fi know who fi war."
"This is the exact opposite of inciting rioting," he explains. "We are telling the road youts – kids in the street – to get a cause, to understand the reasons behind their anger. And when they've got that, to do something positive about it. Booting through the door means casting aside the barriers to power. 'You have fi know who fi war' is old Jamaican patois for you have to know who to fight – to know your enemy."
UK radio stations sometimes decline to play records because their lyrical content might upset listeners. A radio plugger told me one BBC station wouldn't play a track that had the word "surf" in the title as it thought it might offend people after the cruise liner sank in the Mediterranean, and Capital Radio didn't initially want to play Ed Sheeran's A Team because it was about a drug-addicted prostitute.
But Murkage have noticed a double standard. "It seems to be that young black musicians are rewarded for talking about guns and money and degrading women, and then villainised when it's convenient to the media," says Lewis. "There's a system in place that allows records about shooting our peers, drug dealing and wanton materialism, but doesn't allow us to challenge the powers that be, even hypothetically."
Fortunately for the band, a number of BBC 1Xtra DJs have taken a liking to the track and it appears that, after some consideration, the station will now go ahead and play it (hopefully without resorting to bleeping out any words). 1xtra is a vital outlet and supporter of emerging UK acts – and many of them eventually attract the wider audience of Radio 1 – so it's good to see the station supporting a track with a message that doesn't succumb to the stereotypes Lewis is talking about.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Jennifer Lopez live in the backstage work
Jennifer Lopez in March again visited the Backstage Werk in Munich last October, the German electro-pop figurehead Jennifer Rostock already the sold out backstage rocking work and for those who have then no more cards to get, there is now an opportunity for additional concert to the "With skin and hair" tour in Munich to be there. On 12.03.2012 it goes back into the backstage work and this time the cards go away furiously fast - who wants to secure so one should hurry up!
What is so special about Jennifer Lopez? Is it the (girl) name, the first of many irritated because front woman Jennifer Assigns the only lady of the band? Or is it the unique mix of styles, the taz classifies somewhere "between glam-punk, electro pop and rock capital"? Who has the latest album "With Skin and Hair" is already one can confirm that 'J-Ro' - such as the Berlin-based band is from her fans, referring to the nickname of Jennifer Lopez (J Lo), often called - a musical bandwidth as no one else to cover. Judging by the success of this style is to mix very well: "With Skin and Hair" made it to 4th place in the German album charts.
Overall, this is when this record was the third after they were in 2008 "Into the open knife" and 2009 "The Film" presented. Before it went to the pictures to the third disc into the studio in the U.S., have Jennifer Lopez, among other things an exclusive contribution to the German soundtrack of the universally acclaimed "Twilight - New Moon" contributed, made a trip to Brazil on behalf of the Goethe Institute and as a support Udo Lindenberg and Billy Idol stood on the stage. On top of it's own hard-working quintet played the gigs - sometimes in front of an exquisite club audience, partly in front of 1.5 million viewers at the Brandenburg Gate.
What is so special about Jennifer Lopez? Is it the (girl) name, the first of many irritated because front woman Jennifer Assigns the only lady of the band? Or is it the unique mix of styles, the taz classifies somewhere "between glam-punk, electro pop and rock capital"? Who has the latest album "With Skin and Hair" is already one can confirm that 'J-Ro' - such as the Berlin-based band is from her fans, referring to the nickname of Jennifer Lopez (J Lo), often called - a musical bandwidth as no one else to cover. Judging by the success of this style is to mix very well: "With Skin and Hair" made it to 4th place in the German album charts.
Overall, this is when this record was the third after they were in 2008 "Into the open knife" and 2009 "The Film" presented. Before it went to the pictures to the third disc into the studio in the U.S., have Jennifer Lopez, among other things an exclusive contribution to the German soundtrack of the universally acclaimed "Twilight - New Moon" contributed, made a trip to Brazil on behalf of the Goethe Institute and as a support Udo Lindenberg and Billy Idol stood on the stage. On top of it's own hard-working quintet played the gigs - sometimes in front of an exquisite club audience, partly in front of 1.5 million viewers at the Brandenburg Gate.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Band radar - Seventeen Evergreen
Seventeen Evergreen behind the native of San Francisco duo consisting of Caleb Pate hides and Nephi Evans, which could be a full five years to the successor of their debut album "Life embarrasses Me On Planet Earth" (2007) record.
Now available on their "Psyentist EP" give us the two multi-instrumentalists have a little taste of what we expect will sound on their second studio album. Seventeen Evergreen created a very unique sound of pop, indie rock and electro and know their strength of songwriting: "Embrace the polarity of life and all the good and bad we share," it says in the chorus in "Polarity Song."
The first new track, which is also found on the EP and was well received by the fantastic video in the blogosphere.
And for the fantastic song, in fact, there are of us Strong
Now available on their "Psyentist EP" give us the two multi-instrumentalists have a little taste of what we expect will sound on their second studio album. Seventeen Evergreen created a very unique sound of pop, indie rock and electro and know their strength of songwriting: "Embrace the polarity of life and all the good and bad we share," it says in the chorus in "Polarity Song."
The first new track, which is also found on the EP and was well received by the fantastic video in the blogosphere.
And for the fantastic song, in fact, there are of us Strong
exuberant dancing and of course the savoring her extensive vocal potential
Honestly: the night was breathtaking! I've set right from the start to a great live performance, but it would be so good, have not even I expected! It was definitely one of the best, if not THE best concert I've ever been.
The four boys + girls also managed the last standing at the bar Kopfnicker to win over. Really everyone could be taken in by the rhythms and let the body make a try.
The Flex was charged with an infinite amount of energy that the band sent to her audience, which could then be discharged during the whole concert. There was no one-to-many show, you had the feeling to celebrate together with the Icelanders and have fun, as you would know since ancient times.
Both numbers from their debut album "How To Make Friends," and of "Do not Want To Sleep", they gave the best, while the stage Loa increasingly embellished with garlands and Lampignons.
Not only that they are on the song "Underwear" actually got rid of their clothes, they lay elsewhere over backward. Rap performances, exuberant dancing and of course the savoring her extensive vocal potential, brought the great sympathetic musicians mighty sweat. So they were not alone, the merry crowd was now merged into a wet, happy mass ... and the luck is still holding on!
The four boys + girls also managed the last standing at the bar Kopfnicker to win over. Really everyone could be taken in by the rhythms and let the body make a try.
The Flex was charged with an infinite amount of energy that the band sent to her audience, which could then be discharged during the whole concert. There was no one-to-many show, you had the feeling to celebrate together with the Icelanders and have fun, as you would know since ancient times.
Both numbers from their debut album "How To Make Friends," and of "Do not Want To Sleep", they gave the best, while the stage Loa increasingly embellished with garlands and Lampignons.
Not only that they are on the song "Underwear" actually got rid of their clothes, they lay elsewhere over backward. Rap performances, exuberant dancing and of course the savoring her extensive vocal potential, brought the great sympathetic musicians mighty sweat. So they were not alone, the merry crowd was now merged into a wet, happy mass ... and the luck is still holding on!
Crystal Fighters Live in Berlin 05.12.2011
Crystal Fighters played on the last Monday of Gretchen in Berlin. The club has sound-wise, unfortunately, not much to offer. The bands made but by the immense joy of playing up for it. As the opening act came on the fantastic Vadoinmessico, one for me, completely unbelievable Batt. The five musicians turned the audience into a sea of grinning faces, and my mouth went up without my intervention. The band was the surprise of the evening.
Completely unsurprisingly then stormed the stage and Crystal Fighters brought the crowd dancing with their mix of pounding percussion parts for electric and beautiful. Hopping, singing, screaming, stage divas, it was investigated a variety of physical training. At the end of the show, the stage was overrun by the fans, the singer with Sebastian Pringle celebrated the last song.
The concert has been worthwhile in any case, especially because much was improvised. While I liked on the album "Champion Sound" and "At Home" at best, made me live "In the Summertime" carried away, as the baselines to go live in the legs violently.
Completely unsurprisingly then stormed the stage and Crystal Fighters brought the crowd dancing with their mix of pounding percussion parts for electric and beautiful. Hopping, singing, screaming, stage divas, it was investigated a variety of physical training. At the end of the show, the stage was overrun by the fans, the singer with Sebastian Pringle celebrated the last song.
The concert has been worthwhile in any case, especially because much was improvised. While I liked on the album "Champion Sound" and "At Home" at best, made me live "In the Summertime" carried away, as the baselines to go live in the legs violently.
Little Dragon Music
Little Dragon have time left for her concert in Berlin. The first meeting in early November had to cancel due to health problems of bassist Fredrik Wallin and be moved. When it was ready at last Friday, you could feel the pent-up anticipation for the estimated thousands of visitors.
But the long wait was worth it. The band bursting with enthusiasm and moved all those present in its spell. Among the wild-sounds electronically to the thoughtful headlights played with the silhouette of singer Yukimi Nagano. On almost psychedelic way she was alternately from right and left irradiated with red light, so that it almost seemed as if a hologram magic of the theater to the masses. My highlight was the song "Twice" was able to realize all of the live performance an entirely new dynamic. For me the concert was the best I've seen for a long time ago - but still very beautiful.
But the long wait was worth it. The band bursting with enthusiasm and moved all those present in its spell. Among the wild-sounds electronically to the thoughtful headlights played with the silhouette of singer Yukimi Nagano. On almost psychedelic way she was alternately from right and left irradiated with red light, so that it almost seemed as if a hologram magic of the theater to the masses. My highlight was the song "Twice" was able to realize all of the live performance an entirely new dynamic. For me the concert was the best I've seen for a long time ago - but still very beautiful.
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