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Showing posts from July, 2012

Music and Beyond 2012

The last 12 days have been an enjoyable musical experience. If anything I'd say that this year's concerts were even better than 2011. My highlight of the festival definitely goes to the four-part cycle The Rivered Earth created by Vikram Seth and Alec Roth . It's always good to hear new and different works alongside more 'regular' repertoire, and these four works were stupendous: Songs in Time of War ; Shared Ground/Ponticelli ; The Traveller ; and The Seven Elements/The Hermit on the Ice . The first two are available as recordings on the Signum label. They are predominantly vocal-led works, but varying between small and large choirs and tenor solo; the accompaniment from violin, harp, guitar, small string ensemble and piano. The solo violin suite Ponticelli and violin/piano suite The Seven Elements are amazing. Ponticelli is available on CD or download and would appeal to lovers of Ólafur Arnalds or Amiina .  In other concerts, Menahem Pressler was wo

Earthen Grave

Mark Weiner As part of Ottawa chamber music and multi-disciplinary festival, tonight we went to see... a heavy metal band. Yes, Chicago doom band Earthen Grave performed at Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts. The link comes by their resident violinist, classical (and metal) virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine. A very refreshing evening, as we haven't been to a dirty-guitar live gig in far too long. Not that I am criticising the excellent Apocalyptica ! It seems that something got lost in the promotion, as Saint Brigid 's wasn't that full and most of the audience were festival-goers, though this was somewhat balanced by the very enthusiastic metalheads at the front. We did find it rather weird to go to a metal gig in a former church that is still very much a church (plus no alcohol), though there was sufficient space to stand near the stage rather than remain seated. Most of the set comprised songs from the band's self-titled album, though there were covers of T

The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring - Live In Concert

An evening off from Music and Beyond on Friday saw M and I at the NAC for the summer spectacular that is The Fellowship of The Ring - Live In Concert . A completely packed Southam Hall with a fair few concertgoers in some sort of fancy dress (I spotted at least one pair of Elf ears) taking advantage of the 'pub' set in the foyer. The performance was wonderful: in terms of the music, the percussion, brass and choral aspects were the most effective live. I'm sure we heard little bits here and there that I've never before noticed in the soundtrack. I had to keep reminding myself to look and listen to the NAC Orchestra - as usual, the film engrossed me. It was also interesting to see the theatrical version again, although being so used to the extended editions, the theatrical version did feel rather truncated. Very enjoyable and I hope the second and third films are also performed 'In Concert'.  

Festival fun for 2012

Starting this Wednesday I am blogging for Music and Beyond during their 2012 season. With 80 events there are lots of exciting concerts to come! I am particularly excited about the four-part series The Rivered Earth and An Equal Music , all featuring Vikram Seth. Furthermore, Rachel Barton Pine is back! This year's 'Heavy Metal Violin' concert features here full band, Earthen Grave . I listened to their 2012 album (self-titled) on Spotify the other day and it's pretty good! Posts during the festival are on the Music and Beyond blog . Also coming up this week is The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring live at the National Arts Centre . Something to keep film fans happy until The Hobbit, Part 1 comes out in December, the concert features the film on a 60ft screen with over 200 musicians providing the score. Fantastic!