Beethoven Violin Concerto; H&N, Sat 3/3/18; 10:15pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This looks intriguingly barmy. I think that this is what is happening:

Performer/composer/improvisers Adam de la Cour (b1979) and Benedict Taylor (b1982) work together as The Two Bennies*. Each is also the founder of an ensemble dedicated to the performance of "radical and avant garde" Music; de la Cour's is called squib-box, and Taylor's CRAM.

On December 2nd last year, the two ensembles joined forces as CRAM-squib to perform a three-and-a-half-hour concert at North-East London Arts venue The (Old) Dentist which they entitled "Baggage", the focal point of which was a "new performance" of Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Japanese born, London based violinist, Chihiro Ono. With a "warped chamber orchestra" (excluding brass and woodwinds, but including tap dancer and "tabletop objects") this promises to be a performance that will gladden the hearts of the anti-HIPP mafia. Maybe.

The Hear & Now broadcast, presented by Tom Service, presents the performance of the Concerto, together with other excerpts from the event.

This will either be brilliant, or very, very irritating ... or possibly even both!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09tmhvc

http://www.theolddentist.com/events/cramandsquibbaggage

* - de la Cour also performs as Benny the Clown.

[Quarky]

This looks intriguingly barmy. I think that this is what is happening:


This will either be brilliant, or very, very irritating ... or possibly even both!

.

I choose the brilliant option.

Noted it was recorded last December. If it had been performed during this last cold spell, I think the audience at least might have suffered from Hypothermia!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I choose the brilliant option.

I went for "both"!

Initial reaction was that what the Marx Brothers had done to Trovatore, they were doing to Beethoven. But then I started to wonder if the joke was going on too long, which made me focus on what else was happening (after all, the Verdi is a self-parody, ripe for sending-up, which the Beethoven original isn't - and it wasn't being "sent-up"). And I got so much from the experience - not entirely sure what, nor that I particularly want to experience it again (which, with me, is a sure sign that I'll be revisiting it sevberal times over the next 30 days).

And the rest of the event that we heard was joyfully diverse, too - so much more LIFE and positivity in this bonkers attitude than in the dead seriousness of the orchestral works from Wales and Scotland (and which, I see, is the sort of fare we're getting again next week )

[Barbirollians]

Pat Kop is presenting a concert called bye bye Beethoven at the Aldeburgh Festival this summer including playing the concerto . I hope she doesn't get quite this barmy with it .