two concerts

[calimac]

1. Solas. I must have heard of this band somewhere, because I'd felt positive associations when I'd seen the name on the Freight calendar, and so I'd impulsively picked up a ticket beforehand. But when I got to the concert, I found a band I'm sure I'd not known before. The hall was pretty packed, though, and rightly so as the band was a good one: a thoroughly pleasant way to spend an evening, which is what I want of folk music. Irish group, some of whose members are Irish-American, with a typically Irish repertoire mostly of slow songs and fast dances. Instrumental lineup of fiddle, button accordion, guitar, and multi-instrumentalist-usually-banjo, plus an occasional fifth at piano.

2. Marin Symphony. A baby began crying during the first movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony. What I wonder is, why was the baby there in the first place? This isn't baby music. Were you expecting Brahms' Lullaby?

Those responsible hastily exited. The rest of us heard a splendid interpretation. The orchestra was good, too: for a group that only plays three full concerts a year, Marin has it together. My only quibble is that the horns, and the winds in general, are a bit raw for ideal Brahms. I'd like to hear this sound in Tchaikovsky, though. But everyone responded superbly to Music Director Alasdair Neale's impassioned vision of the emotion, the tenderness and power, of this music. The Andante, in particular, had the soul of Brahms.

Brahms' symphony and his Tragic Overture framed Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, a piece I like but had never, I think, heard in concert before. Gently lyrical guitar-picking by Robert Belinic, dutiful attempt to keep the orchestra from drowning him out by the composer.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Did you know that the Concierto de Aranjuez is much played by brass bands in the UK, who know their particular arrangement as "Orange Juice"?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Didn't I hear it in "Brassed Off"?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. I didn't know "Brassed Off" was known over here, it is so very English. And that of course is where I learned that brass bands call it "Orange Juice", tho' the arrangement was familiar from forty years of parades and seaside concerts.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I knew nothing of English colliery brass band music, other than that it existed, before seeing Brassed Off. But it promised to be a delightful film on a fascinating topic, so I went to see it in the theatre - in the San Fernando Valley, where I happened to have a free evening at the time - and it filled that promise. I've watched it again, on DVD, since.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay. I do love both the movie and the tradition. Colliery bands were and are still big throughout the north of England, decades after the closure of the collieries.