I'm thinking of good vibrato
Nov. 25th, 2004 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaLast night: the usual post-work pre-gig hurtle into London.
So, the plan last night was quite simple. Park my car at ChrisC's, hop on a tube. The underground is overground[*] at this point, so I was to send him an sms before the underground became underground, signalling that he should leave work and get tubing to meet me at Knightsbridge. Which would have been fine, had not the thing that reminded me I should be sending an sms been the train entering a tunnel.
Never mind, I thought, I'll head up to the surface at Green Park when I change and send a message. But by Green Park time was starting to look tight (will someone please drag London west up the M4 a bit ?), the station was in disarray as the Jubilee line had just broken, and I'd remembered that, since I was using Oyster pay-as-you-go, I'd end up getting charged for two journeys instead of one if I broke the surface.
Hurrying worriedly along The Tunnel, I was musing that surely mobiles not working on the underground was a common problem ? Why had no one solved it, by putting transmitters at some points ? Even, I thought, special places where you could go to make calls, or even phones you could use... and hey, would you believe, they have ? In Green Park, they've installed these really funky things - they're just like mobiles, except they're fixed to the wall, and a little larger, with the receiver and keypad separate. You have to put some coins in a slot, but other than that they seem to work just fine.
Despite this, and despite some hurrying up Knightsbridge, we were slightly late to the Albert Hall. A tip: if you ask a member of the London Underground staff how many exits there are from Knightsbridge station, and they assure you there is only the one you are standing at, do not believe them.
Now, concerts such as the Royal Philharmonic playing Rock classics belong, in my opinion, in that rather sniffily-defined region of "not really my thing". However, if someone is offering me free tickets I'll go and listen to pretty much anything and expect to enjoy it. Many, many thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nalsa for donating to me the tickets he couldn't use on account of being at the wrong end of the country.
Shortly after arriving, I suddenly remembered a hefty part of my youth spent sitting in the dining room, doing my homework, with Hooked On Classics on the record player. Which, on reflection, I must listen to again when I'm home for Christmas. With that thought, I realised I had no right to grumble about an orchestra playing rock :)
My first impression, as I sat down (right at the front of the arena!), was that the Royal Philharmonic didn't sound like an orchestra. I looked at them. They looked like an orchestra. But... but... a little thought tracked down the problem. The orchestra was miked up (I've never encountered this before), and I was sitting directly in front of a speaker - as a result the music I could hear was all issuing from one point rather than from all over the orchestra. This made it sound rather as if I were listening to a recording, not a live performance.
However, that aside, the concert progressed in a most civilised manner. Some Scots dude, whose voice I recognise from radio (2?) trotted on stage every so often to waffle a bit about the pieces played, and provide random trivia. An octet of singers popped up from behind the orchestra occasionally to lend vocals, and buried somewhere in the orchestra was an electric guitar.
The music was... well, varied. The quality of the playing was high, of course, but the problems lay in the arrangements. Some of the pieces just worked incredibly well, others just didn't seem to suit the medium. Some pieces are just too simplistic to really suit a full orchestral arrangement.
Bat Out Of Hell, predictably, sounded great - after all Steinman always produces songs which sound as if they were intended for a 120-strong orchestra. On the other hand, what might have been expected as the piece de resistance, Bohemian Rhapsody sounded a little weak. The original is already sufficiently epic in scale that the orchestral version came out as a slightly dreary more-of-the-same rendition. Mind you, judging by the applause, that was just my opinion :)
Good Vibrations came with a fantastically polyphonic[**] take on the Beach Boys' backing vocals, and a swinging middle eight that made me smile. Actually, quite a lot of parts made me laugh, sometimes even intentionally. During the acoustic guitar opening of Wonderwall I paused to consider what instrument I'd choose to represent Gallagher's horrendously whiny voice, and had just decided on viola when the solo viola kicked in. I'd just got over that when the trombone took over, and, hamming up the sliding, produced a very creditable impression of a nasal nyah-ing singer. I got the giggles.
Some songs seemed to vary a lot depending on the nature of the song. The long, brooding intro to Livin' On A Prayer sounded amazing, but once the "vocal" kicked in, it sounded merely clichéd. A beautiful, fragile duet between the leaders of the first and second violins in Stairway To Heaven was utterly delightful, until it gave way to a really heavy handed woodwind section.
One serious gripe I would raise was the ubiquitous presence of the drumkit. The ordinary kitchen department had three chaps scurrying around playing tuned and untuned percussion, looking (as percussionists always do) as if they're having a whale of a time - and who can blame them, their entire job is hitting things with sticks to make cool noises. But a standard rock drummer had also been installed, and in some pieces that really jarred.
Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening (and will accordingly be makingnalsa my Designated Hero of the Week). Even the pieces I'm criticising in various ways had a satisfyingly sold and epic feel, with an overall atmosphere of good, clean fun. The Royal Phil are a talented bunch, and gave the impression that most of them were really enjoying playing Rawk for a change. I certainly don't expect quite that much boogying among the first violins in the ordinary run of things :)
It amused me to note that the Royal Philharmonic seems to follow the pattern of orchestras everywhere, by keeping all the reprobates in the brass section. I'm not sure whether it's cause or effect, but if you ever see an orchestra member sniggering, chatting, or generally pissing about, it will be the bass end of the brass section. Maybe it's something to do with passing the time in those interminable 186-bar-rests that constantly afflict brass and woodwind sections. When Wonderwall required only a subset of the orchestra most laid down their instruments and sat quietly. The tuba and a couple of trombones screeched quickly out of a side door - I'd lay folding money that they were heading to the bar to get the beers in.
I've never been in the Albert Hall before - and indeed, my overriding association with it is of my mother describing it as having "the acoustics of a tin bucket". It's an impressive building, both inside and out. I'm a huge fan of round buildings, and the sheer amount of open space inside is quite staggering. I'm not convinced about the weird round bobbly things on the ceiling, though - I assume they're there for acoustic purposes, but they really don't fit with the decor.
Oh, and the best bit - by being 15 minutes late, we managed to miss Candle In The Wind. Result!
--
[*] And, according to certain seditious sources, wombling free.
[**] Anyone mentioning ringtones will be shot at dawn every morning for a week, then instructed to listen to Tallis.
So, the plan last night was quite simple. Park my car at ChrisC's, hop on a tube. The underground is overground[*] at this point, so I was to send him an sms before the underground became underground, signalling that he should leave work and get tubing to meet me at Knightsbridge. Which would have been fine, had not the thing that reminded me I should be sending an sms been the train entering a tunnel.
Never mind, I thought, I'll head up to the surface at Green Park when I change and send a message. But by Green Park time was starting to look tight (will someone please drag London west up the M4 a bit ?), the station was in disarray as the Jubilee line had just broken, and I'd remembered that, since I was using Oyster pay-as-you-go, I'd end up getting charged for two journeys instead of one if I broke the surface.
Hurrying worriedly along The Tunnel, I was musing that surely mobiles not working on the underground was a common problem ? Why had no one solved it, by putting transmitters at some points ? Even, I thought, special places where you could go to make calls, or even phones you could use... and hey, would you believe, they have ? In Green Park, they've installed these really funky things - they're just like mobiles, except they're fixed to the wall, and a little larger, with the receiver and keypad separate. You have to put some coins in a slot, but other than that they seem to work just fine.
Despite this, and despite some hurrying up Knightsbridge, we were slightly late to the Albert Hall. A tip: if you ask a member of the London Underground staff how many exits there are from Knightsbridge station, and they assure you there is only the one you are standing at, do not believe them.
Now, concerts such as the Royal Philharmonic playing Rock classics belong, in my opinion, in that rather sniffily-defined region of "not really my thing". However, if someone is offering me free tickets I'll go and listen to pretty much anything and expect to enjoy it. Many, many thanks to
nalsa for donating to me the tickets he couldn't use on account of being at the wrong end of the country.Shortly after arriving, I suddenly remembered a hefty part of my youth spent sitting in the dining room, doing my homework, with Hooked On Classics on the record player. Which, on reflection, I must listen to again when I'm home for Christmas. With that thought, I realised I had no right to grumble about an orchestra playing rock :)
My first impression, as I sat down (right at the front of the arena!), was that the Royal Philharmonic didn't sound like an orchestra. I looked at them. They looked like an orchestra. But... but... a little thought tracked down the problem. The orchestra was miked up (I've never encountered this before), and I was sitting directly in front of a speaker - as a result the music I could hear was all issuing from one point rather than from all over the orchestra. This made it sound rather as if I were listening to a recording, not a live performance.
However, that aside, the concert progressed in a most civilised manner. Some Scots dude, whose voice I recognise from radio (2?) trotted on stage every so often to waffle a bit about the pieces played, and provide random trivia. An octet of singers popped up from behind the orchestra occasionally to lend vocals, and buried somewhere in the orchestra was an electric guitar.
The music was... well, varied. The quality of the playing was high, of course, but the problems lay in the arrangements. Some of the pieces just worked incredibly well, others just didn't seem to suit the medium. Some pieces are just too simplistic to really suit a full orchestral arrangement.
Bat Out Of Hell, predictably, sounded great - after all Steinman always produces songs which sound as if they were intended for a 120-strong orchestra. On the other hand, what might have been expected as the piece de resistance, Bohemian Rhapsody sounded a little weak. The original is already sufficiently epic in scale that the orchestral version came out as a slightly dreary more-of-the-same rendition. Mind you, judging by the applause, that was just my opinion :)
Good Vibrations came with a fantastically polyphonic[**] take on the Beach Boys' backing vocals, and a swinging middle eight that made me smile. Actually, quite a lot of parts made me laugh, sometimes even intentionally. During the acoustic guitar opening of Wonderwall I paused to consider what instrument I'd choose to represent Gallagher's horrendously whiny voice, and had just decided on viola when the solo viola kicked in. I'd just got over that when the trombone took over, and, hamming up the sliding, produced a very creditable impression of a nasal nyah-ing singer. I got the giggles.
Some songs seemed to vary a lot depending on the nature of the song. The long, brooding intro to Livin' On A Prayer sounded amazing, but once the "vocal" kicked in, it sounded merely clichéd. A beautiful, fragile duet between the leaders of the first and second violins in Stairway To Heaven was utterly delightful, until it gave way to a really heavy handed woodwind section.
One serious gripe I would raise was the ubiquitous presence of the drumkit. The ordinary kitchen department had three chaps scurrying around playing tuned and untuned percussion, looking (as percussionists always do) as if they're having a whale of a time - and who can blame them, their entire job is hitting things with sticks to make cool noises. But a standard rock drummer had also been installed, and in some pieces that really jarred.
Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening (and will accordingly be making
nalsa my Designated Hero of the Week). Even the pieces I'm criticising in various ways had a satisfyingly sold and epic feel, with an overall atmosphere of good, clean fun. The Royal Phil are a talented bunch, and gave the impression that most of them were really enjoying playing Rawk for a change. I certainly don't expect quite that much boogying among the first violins in the ordinary run of things :)It amused me to note that the Royal Philharmonic seems to follow the pattern of orchestras everywhere, by keeping all the reprobates in the brass section. I'm not sure whether it's cause or effect, but if you ever see an orchestra member sniggering, chatting, or generally pissing about, it will be the bass end of the brass section. Maybe it's something to do with passing the time in those interminable 186-bar-rests that constantly afflict brass and woodwind sections. When Wonderwall required only a subset of the orchestra most laid down their instruments and sat quietly. The tuba and a couple of trombones screeched quickly out of a side door - I'd lay folding money that they were heading to the bar to get the beers in.
I've never been in the Albert Hall before - and indeed, my overriding association with it is of my mother describing it as having "the acoustics of a tin bucket". It's an impressive building, both inside and out. I'm a huge fan of round buildings, and the sheer amount of open space inside is quite staggering. I'm not convinced about the weird round bobbly things on the ceiling, though - I assume they're there for acoustic purposes, but they really don't fit with the decor.
Oh, and the best bit - by being 15 minutes late, we managed to miss Candle In The Wind. Result!
--
[*] And, according to certain seditious sources, wombling free.
[**] Anyone mentioning ringtones will be shot at dawn every morning for a week, then instructed to listen to Tallis.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 04:53 am (UTC)(The vocalists weren't singing the main lyrics, they were just providing backing bits, and oohs, and ahs, and so on.)
Steinman is a Rock God!
Date: 2004-11-25 04:51 am (UTC)The original version is on the Pandora's Box album, a four girl group put together by Steinman, who, to my regret, only released the one album (which he wrote).
The intro to IACBTMN has a chord. A very special chord. Steinman described it as "the most amazing sound I ever heard.". They took a warehouse full of motorbikes (so, approximately one per orchestra member?), and revved them all simultaneously.
And then used this for one single chord.
Who says you can't make music on a motorbike?
Re: Steinman is a Rock God!
Date: 2004-11-25 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 04:52 am (UTC)(and you're welcome.)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 05:01 am (UTC)Ouch :)
I think I went expecting low-brow fun, and I got it. Hurrah.
I'm surprised at his comment that the orchestra hate playing it - I mean, I could well see why they might, but they really didn't look it. Certainly towards the end of the second half, there was quite a lot of bouncing around to what they were playing.
And actually, going there reminded me that I haven't been to a "proper" classical concert in a couple of years, and I really should.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 06:53 am (UTC)Is he seriously advocating that people should listen to stuff they don't enjoy just because someone else reliably informs them it's deep and clever ? I doubt it.
The sad part is that whoever wrote the arrangements made (seemingly) such a bum job of it.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:07 am (UTC)Plenty of classical music has "energy and excitement" to it. The idea that it doesn't, and that you have to go and hear an orchestra playing rock to find it, is quite sad.
I have no idea what Rhodri is actually likely to be advocating, as I don't know the gentleman ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:08 am (UTC)Y'know: in the same way that TV programing panders to the lowest common denominators; computer games with no (effective) player interaction, but lots of eye-candy get pushed into production; it takes Harry Potter to get people into reading, etc, etc.
It must be soul destroying to be a professional classical musician, and see a much bigger audience turn up when you're playing pap than when you're playing something worthwhile.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-26 07:22 pm (UTC)And hence Harry Potter sells more copies than the Proceedings of the Royal Society. This isn't news ;-)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:59 am (UTC)I quite like Old Possum as well, but the vast, vast majority of copies bought today are by people who have Cats on CD. Mine is - well, technically was - the one my Mum used when she was at school.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 08:14 am (UTC)Aha!
I had long since been wondering if this was the case, since there didn't seem to be any other reason for their existence.
I wonder if people who own Cats actually like Old Possum. I was confused and faintly put out when I first heard Cats, because of course the words weren't exactly the same as they were in the book - and so were Wrong in my opinion.
Anyone buying the book and basically expecting the libretto of Cats is going to suffer exactly the same crossness.
Have they appended Rhapsody on a Windy Night to Old Possum so people don't get to the end and demand to know where Memory is ?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 09:51 pm (UTC)Scary but true fact: that has been translated into Japanese and is on sale in bookshops here.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 05:51 am (UTC)Out of curiosity, did they play any of the more usual classical arrangements of rock/pop (The Beatles being most obvious)? And was it the arrangemnt of the woodwind onStairway to Heaven that made it heavy-handed or the choice of instruments?
I'm suprised that they played Bohemian Rhapsody at a concert of mainly instrumental music. The original always struct me as verging on the operatic. So, as has already been pointed out it needs good powerful vocals.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 06:01 am (UTC)As best I can remember, in no particular order, they played:
Layla, Yellow (Coldplay), Bohemian Rhapsody, Let It Be, Good Vibrations, Why Does it Always Rain On Me (Travis), Handbags & Gladrags (Rod Stewart/Stereophonics - I actually don't know this), Stairway To Heaven, Wonderwall, Papa Don't Preach, Nights in White Satin, A Whiter Shade of Pale, We Are The Champions ...
I'm not used to listening to classical arrangements of rock, so don't know what constitutes "usual". I think Let It Be was the only Beatles track.
And was it the arrangemnt of the woodwind onStairway to Heaven that made it heavy-handed or the choice of instruments?
I'm not sure, as I wasn't being particularly analytical about it. I was just aware of quite enjoying it, and then everything suddenly going "thud" (metaphorically).
You can purchase a double album of the Royal Phil playing many Rock Classics if you wish... It was available last night at a knock-down £10, but I resisted somehow ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 06:40 am (UTC)Actually, neither originally - don't recall who it was without googling. But Rod Stewart probably had the earlier cover, and I'd wager, the more well known. That said I hadn't known the Stereophonics had covered it. Kids today, eh?
And as for Steinman being generally orchestral, well, that is kind of his schtick. *mumble*years ago when I saw Mr Loaf at the godawful Wembley Arena the support act was a string quartet, playing fairly quietly. Took me a while to notice they were actually playing a selection of Steinman's greatest hits. As the quartet struck up Bat Out Of Hell the long haired biker-jacketed guitarist jumped out from behind the curtains and chased them angrily off stage while the 'real' band behind launched into whatever the first song was while the curtains dropped to the floor. The hurling of stools* after them was a nice touch I felt.
The RAH does indeed appear an impressive building, and you're right about the upside down mushrooms being there to improve the acoustics. Think they were put in as part of the last set of major refurbishments as I'm fairly sure I don't recall them there when first I went to the RAH.
* the type they were sat on, not any other type.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 06:45 am (UTC)Scots Announcer Dude said that it'd been written by <mumble mumble> from Mannfred Mann. But implied that he personally hadn't had a hit with it. I may have misunderstood though.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 06:53 am (UTC)Me neither, so I'll pass on the CD:)But my parents used to listen to the stuff and it used get played on what was the BBC Light Service. So I was subjected to quite large amounts of it when I was growing up - The Beatles, Moody Blues, and Whiter Shade of Pale. So those to me are the usual;)Alas, usually played by Joe Loss and Montevani:-(
And late 60's and 70's prog-rock had a tendancy to experiment with orchestration anyway, so it was easy enough to play with an orchestra.:)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 07:20 am (UTC)Ken Bruce?
I commend his show, especially at 10:30 and 11:15 - he runs a fiendishly hard pop quiz then.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-25 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-26 07:20 pm (UTC)Did you make it to the Superdome when you were in New Orleans? They've got a frickin' football field in there. And when the punter kicks the ball as high as he possibly can, it gets maybe a third of the way to the ceiling.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 01:43 am (UTC)I want to claim that that's not a building, it's a stadium, but I think I'm on rather shaky ground there.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-26 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 01:42 am (UTC)The only mystery was what was providing the theremin sound in Good Vibrations. Scots Announcer Dude described a theremin and made it sound like they didn't have one; I'm really quite intrigued as to what was making the noise. It could plausibly have been one of the vocalists, I'm really not sure.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-28 03:30 pm (UTC)