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| BBCNOW CoLaboratory/Monbet review – experimental evening is great fun | by Rian Evans May 2, 2022 | Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff French-Irish conductor and violinist Fiona Monbet oversaw a chameleonic programme that incorporated blues, bossa nova and a ballet suite This was a BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert not quite like any other, its CoLaboratory label suggesting both collaborative and experimental elements and highlighting the varied talents of the French-Irish conductor and violinist Fiona Monbet. Her precise conducting of Darius Milhaud’s ballet suite La Création du Monde – inspired by his encounter with jazz in 1920s New York, with its sensuous fusion of lyrical lines and jazz-inflected harmonies – helped set up the rest of the programme. Iain Ballamy was the soloist in the premiere of Luke Styles’ saxophone concerto Tracks in the Orbit. In three movements entitled respectively Mill, Devotional and Whirlpool, Styles had fashioned a work indulging all of Ballamy’s laidback virtuosity, improvisatory instincts and his characteristic tone, velvet but edgy when needed. Yet the sense was sometimes of music – and perhaps Ballamy, too – needing to break the constraints and take off. At the very end came a sudden effusion of orchestra and soloist together, but short-lived and fizzling out. Available on BBC Sounds. Continue reading... | | | Translations review – Brian Friel's tale of two cultures has universal impact | by Helen Meany May 2, 2022 | Lyric, Belfast Caitríona McLaughlin’s taut new production of Friel’s colonisation drama is a timeless study of change and identity Brian Friel’s drama of colonisation becomes a timeless study of change and adaptation in a taut new co-production between Belfast’s Lyric theatre and the Abbey, Dublin. Based on the mapping of Ireland’s landscape in the 1830s, Friel’s play has been performed all over the world since its premiere by Field Day in 1980. Director Caitríona McLaughlin highlights its universality, avoiding sentimentality, with designers Joanna Parker (set) and Paul Keogan (lighting) creating a strikingly abstract stage picture: a sloping ridge evoking a cottage roof against a summer night’s sky. In Donegal, where place names are being translated into English for Ordnance Survey maps, the English soldiers tasked with this exercise are assisted by a local man. Owen (Leonard Buckley) mediates between them and the villagers, who speak Irish only. When Lieutenant Yolland (Aidan Moriarty) becomes enthralled by the Irish language and landscape, he is teased by Owen for his misty romanticism: “The first hot summer in 50 years and you think it’s Eden.” At the Lyric, Belfast, until 29 May, then at the Abbey, Dublin, 12 June to 13 August. Continue reading... | | | Liverpool Sound City review – mirth, mania and future megastars at resurgent festival | by Patrick Clarke May 2, 2022 | Various venues, Liverpool This irreverent, energetic music festival is back in its rightful form – but its reliance on guitar acts undersells city’s vibrancy If there’s an abiding image of 2022’s Sound City, it’s the cartons of water provided by one of the festival’s corporate sponsors; essentially, it looks as if all the artists are chugging milk on stage. It sparks bemusement and mirth in equal measure and captures the festival’s entire atmosphere in microcosm – there’s a pleasant irreverence blanketing Liverpool city centre. “It’s water, I swear!” protests Peter Harrison to one of the festival’s many cries of “Is that milk?” as his band San Lorenz – whose dramatic art rock and cutting vocals have set them apart as local favourites – deliver one of the sets of the weekend in the Arts Club’s sweltering attic. “This water’s a fuckin’ con!” exclaims Crawlers vocalist Holly Minto as she struggles with a flimsy carton in the same venue hours earlier, gleefully rejecting heckles to down the whole thing. Continue reading... | | | | |
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