The Brodsky Quartet do Il Sogno, London Nov 9 '13

[johnfoyle]

HMV ( UK) have this info. for Elvis' ballet score album -



http://www1.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayPro ... sku=189638

Availability: available for pre-order only
Release date: 13-9-2004
Number of Discs: 1
Catalogue Number: PRERELCLASSCD
Label: DECCA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elvis , as we know , recorded this with the
London Symphony Orchestra in April 2002. Today's
Independent ( London) has a profile of this musical
operation.
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... ory=528047


Elvis has , of course , regularly spoken about
his respect for professional musicians. He will not ,
therefore , be offended if his musical colleagues of
two years back hardly remember him ; as this extract
shows some of them cannot remember who they worked
with mere days ago.

Trumpeter Maurice Murphy comments -

"And I've been here ever since. The Saturday morning I
started was the first session for Star Wars. It seemed
nice music, but none of us really knew what it was."
What it was, of course, was the start of the LSO's
most dependable money-spinner: as the film composer
John Williams's orchestra of choice, they're booked to
record for the sixth Star Wars film next February. Now
they do sessions galore: what was the one they
recorded yesterday? "I've no idea. Just some light
music. A nice chap came with his arrangements and
played them on the piano, to make a CD of some sort.
I've forgotten his name. That's the pleasure of this
job." Are there stresses too? "Well, you are exposed."
Has he ever had an alarming moment? A beaming smile:
"Can't remember one."

We can also expect a sound with a little
less racousness than the Imposters as this comment from
Orchestra leader Colin Davis tells -


Colin Davis pinpoints the key change in this band over
the four decades he has known it: the influx of women.
"They're very good players, and they make a different
sound. The all-male orchestra was very efficient, but
its sound was hard. It isn't any less efficient now,
but the sound is softer and sweeter. The women don't
play as aggressively, and they're more flexible -
maybe because they don't put so much tension into it.
They don't have such big hands, and they're not
muscular unless they decide to be. They therefore
remain very nimble. And with them, the men behave
better. Nobody would dare to be drunk on the platform
now."

[BrilliantMistake45]

Is this just score or does EC sing on this?

[sweetest punch]

Il Sogno is just an instrumental (orchestral) score. Expect no singing of EC.
What troubles me more is that HMV only talks of a single disc. What happened to the promised bonusdisc with the orchestral songs to be recorded at the North Sea Jazz Festival?
And one more puzzling thing: his official website states that the label Deutsche Grammophon would issue Il Sogno, but HMV has Decca as the label ?!

[verbal gymnastics]

What troubles me more is that HMV only talks of a single disc. What happened to the promised bonusdisc with the orchestral songs to be recorded at the North Sea Jazz Festival?

As the North Sea Jazz Festival show is not on until July, perhaps Elvis isn't promoting the bonus disc yet in case it suffers the curse of Costello.

[laughingcrow]

In the back of MOJO (with RHCP on the front), there is an advert for a 2-disc Il Sogno. I can only imagine that they will do the same as North...release a 2-disc 'special edition' as standard, with disc 2 being the North Sea Jazz performance!

Here's somthing vaguely interesting....on amazon.co.uk, there is an Il Sogno available by Castello.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 15-0150060

[HungupStrungup]

The program for the Avery Fisher concerts has a Deutsche Grammophon ad for the Il Sogno CD "to be released in the fall," with details of the 2-disc edition. I think the program says something about this being a simultaneous release with the new EC & the Imposters' album. I'll check those details later, when I have the program in front of me.

[SweetPear]

Along these lines....I have a little dilemma that maybe someone could clear up for me.
I have one of the North discs with the bonus DVD and while I played the disc right away, it took me a while before I got to the DVD. For whatever reason...well, I do know the reason (I think)....the disc wouldn't play on either of our computers or my old laptop. My windows media player kept telling me all the components weren't available to play it~or something like that. So a few months ago I get a brand new Gateway laptop and give it another try....and it worked.

It played something like a 21 second ad for North. What the f*ck???

I tried it over and over.....THAT'S all that's on that DVD? I find that hard to believe.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[laughingcrow]

That's odd.......mine plays on a PC and a DVDplayer. Try it in a DVD player...if not, maybe you've got a faulty copy.

[martinfoyle]

2 copies of this nice item arrived in the post here this morning, which nicely compensated for the non-appearance of the re-issues. The 3 tracks,Puck One, Oberon & Titania, and The Wedding certainly sound very promising. I'm no classical music buff, but even I could appreciate that this is no throwaway stuff. Great sound as well. The second part of Oberon & Titania borrows the bass riff from On Broadway to great effect. I cant wait to hear the rest of it.

[DrJ]

Did you get that off ebay, Martin? Can anyone post any mp3s? The reissues weren't to be found in any Dublin shops today, for what it's worth.

DrJ

[laughingcrow]

That looks smart!!! I just sent a begging email to Deutsch Grammaphone asking for one!

[martinfoyle]

Kind EC fans who were at the NY shows sent me copies. If any of my Celtic Soul Brothers want a copy, PM me your snailmail address.

[DrJ]

They are for sale on ebay for under $10.

DrJ

[SweetPear]

So regarding my bonus North DVD....you guys think it's a dud? What else is on the disc?

So can I get another one.....I mean, didn't they have a limited distribution?

[DrJ]

The DVD should have three clips from North which I recall being a mimed "Still" and a live version of "You Turned To Me" and "North" played on that wonky ivy-covered piano. There was windows media stuff on the music disc, which would never work in my mac. I don't mean to sound patronising but you're not getting the two discs mixed up, are you? I don't know if the DVD is region encoded. If it is it depends where you bought it and what kind of player you use.

DrJ

[sweetest punch]

One of the tracks - Puck One - has found a new live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqTCmLXw6Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6AJbyDUTk

[jardine]

that really is fabulous and quite psychedelic to watch...

[docinwestchester]

One of the tracks - Puck One - has found a new live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqTCmLXw6Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6AJbyDUTk

One can only hope that EC has a chance to see this.

[Jack of All Parades]

Most imaginative and how nice to not have to be subjected to "Pump It Up" for the umpteenth time.

[FAVEHOUR]

He's got the clip up on his website now, and on the Twitter account.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on-bo ... f5V9G14lHB


The Brodsky Quartet - Costello's ‘Il Sogno’ and other gems

The Brodsky Quartet - Trees, Walls, Cities

Music / Saturday, 9 November 2013 - 7:30pm / Hall One

Online Price: £13.50 / £15.50 / £19.50 / £24.50 / Savers £9.50*

Purcell arr. Britten Fantasia XIII in F Upon One Note
Masson Three Pieces for String Quartet
Robert Davidson Three Men and a Blonde
Dave Brubeck Regret
Shostakovich Waltz No. 2 (arr. For Piano Quintet by Jacqueline Thomas)
Ravel Blues from Violin Sonata No. 2
Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes
Elvis Costello Il Sogno

Daniel Rowland violin
Ian Belton violin
Paul Cassidy viola
Jacqueline Thomas cello

The third and final Brodsky Quartet concert centres around Elvis Costello’s stunning ballet music, Il Sogno. Commissioned in 2000 by the Italian company Aterballeto for their adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the work is now a regular part of the orchestral repertoire.

Robert Davidson, bass player in the Brisbane-based group Topology, has written a number of pieces for the Quartet over the years, and tonight they perform his brilliant, tongue-in-cheek Three Men and a Blonde, written for them for their 40th anniversary, and his stupendous arrangement of Il Sogno for 8 players, in which he somehow manages to keep all the colour, nuance and humour of the full orchestral version.

The Brubeck was also written for The Brodsky Quartet and is his response to the events of 9/11. Prokofiev's glorious Hebrew Themes leads us perfectly into Costello’s sound world.

[Man out of Time]

It seems this is not the first time the Brodskys have played "Il Sogno". They played it in Brisbane, Australia on 18 July.

http://brisbanepowerhouse.org/about/med ... -costello/

Review from the Music.com.au is here:

BRODSKY QUARTET & TOPOLOGY
BRISBANE POWERHOUSE
19 July, 2013

Visiting Brisbane as the world’s foremost interpreters of the works of Soviet Russia composer Shostakovich, the Brodsky Quartet’s first Queensland Music Festival show has the British group pairing with Topology, local chamber music inspired, genre-melding ensemble-in-residence. It’s a rare treat to have two such distinctly styled outfits in collaboration, and the evening begins with the Brodsky Quartet – original childhood founders Jacqueline Thomas and Ian Belton on cello and violin, with Paul Cassidy on viola and Daniel Rowland on violin – joining Topology double-bassist Robert Davidson’s composition written especially for the Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival. Honouring his late uncle’s resting place of North Stradbroke Island, it’s an emotional piece that brings the landscape duly to mind. As the rest of Toplogy join the stage, saxophonist John Babbage’s Dance Of The ‘80s presents some darker, more robust themes with a definite era bent before composer Andrew Ford emerges from the audience to introduce String Quartet No.3, a new work commissioned last year for the Brodsky’s 40th anniversary. In four movements, the first emerges with the wonder and glee of Thomas and Belton’s childhood explorations, leading to the second Cradle Song movement dedicated to the memory of young Brisbane violinist Richard Pollett. The quartet’s pent up energy spills into a vibrant and intense high-end pitch shift led by Rowland’s mesmerising and very physical performance style before a fitting reference to their Northumbria home is inserted into the slowest movement in the form of the traditional Maa Bonny Lad.

Speech melody work Three Men And A Blonde has been composed by Davidson especially for this occasion; during various phone calls he asked each member separately: “So who are the Brodsky Quartet?”, recording their answers and developing a sequence of melody to enable both a musical and verbal response. It’s intriguing to watch the quartet individually interact with the recordings, adding emphasis and oodles of charm as each play up to the wonderful words spoken about them, and by them. As the relative newcomer, Rowland’s recorded contribution identifies their characteristic bond: “The three of them, they understand each other without words.” Having worked extensively with Elvis Costello, the quartet recreates part of his acclaimed ballet suite Il Sogno alongside Topology, alternately playful, choppy and mournful. A toe-tapping swing emerges between Thomas, Davidson and Topology’s violia player Bernard Hoey with grins exchanged as the double-bassist’s bear-like hands offer a percussive interlude. An encore nicknamed The Beast demands the full attention of all nine performers who cleverly weave Rick James’ iconic Superfreak bass melody into the mix, leaving the audience enthralled, soothed and moved in equal measures.

Written by Tyler McLoughlan

http://themusic.com.au/reviews/reviews- ... cloughlan/

MOOT

[johnfoyle]

The more I read about this the more I like it. Hows about we think of making this a fan meet-up event?

[johnfoyle]

Just remembered Martin will be in New York that weekend so I can't go to London - feck!

[Man out of Time]

One of the tracks - Puck One - has found a new live:

In addition to the two links already posted, there are now these mostly featuring the Carolina Crowns marching band:

The Puck (Transcription)
Rehearsal
Another rehearsal
Brass rehearsal
"Puck One"
Allentown horns the puck
DCI Eastern Classic - Carolina Crown - The Puck!
Carolina Crown Puck One DCI Atlanta HD
2009 Carolina Crown on finals night

Judging by some of the comments on Youtube I think it fair to say that "The Puck" is a favourite with the fans. I suppose it should be no surprise that ballet music should translate well for a marching band.

All rather a contrast to the reviews that "Il Sogno" received when it was first released, like this one (in translation) from the Norwegian paper Dagbladet:

Elvis Costello
A long yawn from Costello.

CD: Most notable about Elvis Costello's latest CD, "Il Sogno" is that there is nothing particularly noteworthy there.
It's about ballet, commissioned by the Italian dance company Aterballetto, to something as conventional as a feature-length version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It has been done before, and why not again, Costello can always argue for the project. At least it gave him the opportunity to practice the craft. "Il Sogno" is actually Costello's first completed orchestral score, written in old-fashioned way, with a pencil and eraser.

But one thing is Costello's finger exercises, otherwise the artistic creativity we expect when we are invited to a new, full-length ballet music. And there should be expect with little, if Costello's tone occasionally go home. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, having made ​​a critical revision to what apparently did not work in the original dance music.

What's left, bearing not the reason. Costello has put aside whatever he can as a songwriter. Instead, we decorate tone all times, based on impressionistic orchestral conventions from the beginning of the last century. It shines only where Costello has invited such prominent musicians as saxophonist John Harle, percussionist Peter Erskine and bassist Chris Laurence, and given them free rein to improvise. Then we perceive a stride in music, which in totality only reminds us of what we miss in the rest of the score.

No, the music should not be boring, even when it is signed Elvis Costello.

Two stars

MOOT