NSO Pops with Pink Martini
Feb. 28th, 2008 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreFor those who are unfamiliar with them, Pink Martini is a Portland, Oregon based group of musicians who play a mixture of classical, jazz, cabaret, fusiony sort of stuff. They were performing tonight with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen. I went because I loved their first album, Sympathique, and because I've been promising myself to get out and hear more live music.
The show was something of a mixed bag. They started out with Ravel's Bolero, which is a piece I admit I've never really cared for by a composer I dislike. (I have never forgiven him for his orchestration of Mussourgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition which dilutes all of the raw energy of the composition.) They did do one other Ravel piece later on, but most of the performance was more to my liking. I think the Latin-tinged pieces are their strongest, e.g. ¿Donde estas, Yolanda?. China Forbes has an excellent singing voice, well suited for cabaret numbers and 1930's Paris music hall type stuff. Her original songs are amusing, too, particularly "Dosveadanya, mio bambino" (about a man torn between Russia and Italy.) I was also really impressed by Robert Taylor on trombone.
I'm not sure how effective the orchestration was. In some cases, it really was an enhancement, but in others, it seemed overdone to have the NSO in the background. Orchestration is an interesting problem, in general, and I admit to a bias in favor of simpler arrangements. Often, I thought I knew what the effect they were going for was, but it got lost in, say, the lushness of too many violins.
I'll also comment that, while I appreciate Thomas Lauderdale's talent, his histrionic style of playing annoys me visually. There is really no need for a pianist to wave his arms about quite so wildly. And, yes, I know other people like this and get impressed by it, but I kept finding myself thinking about the repetitive stress injuries down the road from his style.
Finally, I have one observation about the impact of knowing something about a song. China Forbes introduced the last song in the first half (Bukra wb'ado) by saying that it was their first attempt to sing in Arabic. Having heard that, I was expecting something that would sound Arabic to me - drones and a slower beat and so on. But the song sounded very Balkan / Gypsyish and I kept finding myself distracted by that. I couldn't separate whether or not I liked it from my feelings of being misled about what it would be.
Overall, they did 21 pieces, of which I loved 11, liked 6, felt neutral towards 1, and disliked 3. That's pretty good overall. I'd recommend going, but I believe that the other performances (this weekend) are all sold out.
The show was something of a mixed bag. They started out with Ravel's Bolero, which is a piece I admit I've never really cared for by a composer I dislike. (I have never forgiven him for his orchestration of Mussourgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition which dilutes all of the raw energy of the composition.) They did do one other Ravel piece later on, but most of the performance was more to my liking. I think the Latin-tinged pieces are their strongest, e.g. ¿Donde estas, Yolanda?. China Forbes has an excellent singing voice, well suited for cabaret numbers and 1930's Paris music hall type stuff. Her original songs are amusing, too, particularly "Dosveadanya, mio bambino" (about a man torn between Russia and Italy.) I was also really impressed by Robert Taylor on trombone.
I'm not sure how effective the orchestration was. In some cases, it really was an enhancement, but in others, it seemed overdone to have the NSO in the background. Orchestration is an interesting problem, in general, and I admit to a bias in favor of simpler arrangements. Often, I thought I knew what the effect they were going for was, but it got lost in, say, the lushness of too many violins.
I'll also comment that, while I appreciate Thomas Lauderdale's talent, his histrionic style of playing annoys me visually. There is really no need for a pianist to wave his arms about quite so wildly. And, yes, I know other people like this and get impressed by it, but I kept finding myself thinking about the repetitive stress injuries down the road from his style.
Finally, I have one observation about the impact of knowing something about a song. China Forbes introduced the last song in the first half (Bukra wb'ado) by saying that it was their first attempt to sing in Arabic. Having heard that, I was expecting something that would sound Arabic to me - drones and a slower beat and so on. But the song sounded very Balkan / Gypsyish and I kept finding myself distracted by that. I couldn't separate whether or not I liked it from my feelings of being misled about what it would be.
Overall, they did 21 pieces, of which I loved 11, liked 6, felt neutral towards 1, and disliked 3. That's pretty good overall. I'd recommend going, but I believe that the other performances (this weekend) are all sold out.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 06:04 pm (UTC)I've been courting the idea of downloading more from iTunes, but the 30-second snippets don't give me enough to go on.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 12:18 am (UTC)I only have one of their 3 CDs (Sympathque) and I like enough of it to be worth having the entire CD. But, if you just want individual songs, as a general rule I'd say to go for ones with Spanish or French titles.
Also, if you like Pink Martini, you should check out Paris Combo. You might also like the vocal work of Virginia Rodriguez.