Philip Glass: An Evening Of Film Music And Dance
featuring: Philip Glass, Michael Riesman and M & M Ensemble
Melkweg (Rabozaal)
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
29th April 2012 (2012-04-29)
REDISTRIBUTION:
At the time of writing (2012-04-30), Philip Glass is on DIME's NAB list as a
performer. Therefore, because this concert was billed as a Philip Glass
concert, no part of this recording is allowed there, even if the one and only
piece performed by Glass himself were excised.
The DIME mods have verified that this is the case and I have requested that
they modify Glass's NAB entry to make clearer what it means to be disallowed
as a performer.
Apart from that restriction, please feel free to redistribute this recording
far and wide, so that as many people as possible may enjoy it.
RECORDING:
Type: Audience master, recorded from centre seat in front row. Given my
position relative to the PA (which was mounted far above my head), the
recording primarily captured the acoustics of the instruments, as
opposed to their amplified sound.
Source: 2 x matched DPA 4060 mics ->
DPA MMA6000 amplifier (100 Hz low-cut filter) ->
Edirol R-09HR recorder (44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 2.0.0 (tracks split, fades added)->
FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]
Taper: Ian Macdonald (ianmacd)
SET LIST:
Performer: Philip Glass
01. [00:35] [introduction by Philip Glass]
02. [04:21] Metamorphosis Two
--
Performers: Michael Riesman and M & M Ensemble
03. [00:52] [Michael Riesman introduction by Philip Glass]
04. [02:49] [introduction by Michael Riesman]
05. [11:04] The Hours Suite: I.
06. [07:31] The Hours Suite: II.
07. [07:40] The Hours Suite: III.
08. [01:27] [M & M Ensemble introduction by Michael Riesman]
--
[intermission]
--
Performers: Michael Riesman and M & M Ensemble
09. [03:39] [introduction by Michael Riesman]
10. [04:44] Dracula Suite: I.
11. [04:14] Dracula Suite: II.
12. [05:38] Dracula Suite: III.
13. [04:41] Dracula Suite: IV.
14. [08:50] Dracula Suite: V.
15. [01:17] [encore break]
16. [00:28] [introduction by Philip Glass]
17. [04:45] The Truman Show: Raising The Sail
--
[intermission]
--
18. [02:06] [introduction to Intaglio by Philip Glass]
Total running time: 76:39
MD5 CHECKSUMS:
8fb84e299e06ae95c48f0c2f017c79c4 flac/01_introduction_by_philip_glass.flac
e53451a994b7079ff199ad8519de63a9 flac/02_metamorphosis_two.flac
d6b7566916a88a12aef1bc660cd61f07 flac/03_michael_riesman_introduction_by_philip_glass.flac
f5d427a6662e281d420bcb6a5cb72949 flac/04_introduction_by_michael_riesman.flac
4f66d604e16bfe490afad50217f2ac06 flac/05_the_hours_suite_i.flac
80272eaf11bd78de65367968b4e0d3b1 flac/06_the_hours_suite_ii.flac
631eff9d341a5b87ec212cdce8672bb4 flac/07_the_hours_suite_iii.flac
d4038e306f470e637806e55996736dad flac/08_m__m_ensemble_introduction_by_michael_riesman.flac
40e2214dc56912f1845dc3ce3a0041f7 flac/09_introduction_by_michael_riesman.flac
8861a679514963a977e3a8b78ec86ed9 flac/10_dracula_suite_i.flac
d30bcdd3153046eab1a8aa08c358039e flac/11_dracula_suite_ii.flac
2f8de015d00f6b9d37a5906631ba9507 flac/12_dracula_suite_iii.flac
cc9ab5593f9d181db603e20c028c38ec flac/13_dracula_suite_iv.flac
eb4bce9bd9bdc6f6930cf03e500f97e4 flac/14_dracula_suite_v.flac
d43b046c37589137a18d845eae60d5f1 flac/15_encore_break.flac
f7f46acd3a81528ca5739ee2ea6ae095 flac/16_introduction_by_philip_glass.flac
2743e7a1f1df5d574b0337d376e46923 flac/17_the_truman_show_raising_the_sail.flac
04d9047325dd0babff9c26fc47da0f23 flac/18_introduction_to_intaglio_by_philip_glass.flac
db6312f50428d430552731f74b2bedb5 flac/checksums.ffp
NOTES:
I return to the Melkweg's Rabozaal for a second night of the music of Philip
Glass. Whereas the previous performance was focused on chamber music, this is
to be an evening of film music and dance.
It's Koninginnedag tomorrow, a huge national holiday in the Netherlands, and
the city's nightlife hotspots are already coming alive. Alcohol is flowing
freely and police are crawling all over the Leidseplein, which was the scene
of fighting between supporters of rival football clubs earlier in the day.
Last night was unassigned seating. a.k.a. first come, first served, but
the tickets for tonight are tied to individual seats. I was quick enough off
the bat to secure a seat in the centre of the front row, but I'm concerned
that it may not be optimal for recording. Front row seats rarely are. I'm
hopeful, though, that it may turn out better than I expect, because I've
ascertained from the seating plan that this evening's hall layout is
significantly different to the previous evening's.
The venue's main doors were open when I arrived, but we're not actually
allowed into the concert hall until 19:45. Becoming ever more used to being
the old fart at gigs, I'm struck this evening by my comparative youthfulness,
even when compared to the audience that attended the previous evening's Glass
concert.
I attribute that to the dance element. This definitely isn't your usual
gig-going crowd; even the word 'gig' is incongruous here. Some of the women
are dressed to kill, as if they're off to the ballet or opera, and my general
impression of the audience is that they look like the kind of people you might
see at a Sotheby's art auction, clutching a thirty euro catalogue before the
auctioneer has even had a chance to swing his gavel.
My front row seat turns out to be a mixed blessing. The bad news is that the
PA is rigged far overhead, probably ten metres or more above my head. I'm
directly below it, too, so if I hear any sound from the PA this evening, it'll
be on the rebound from the walls around me and severely degraded as a result.
The good news is that this is a classical concert, featuring work performed on
acoustic instruments. The sound that I'll capture this evening will almost
exclusively be that naturally emanating from the instruments on the stage,
before any microphone or amplifier has coloured the sound.
I can see from the way in which the piano and chairs have been arranged on
stage that the musicians are going to be sitting very close, perhaps just ten
or so metres away from where I'm sitting. This is going to be a real treat.
Glass himself opens the proceedings with the second movement of 1988's
'Metamorphosis'. It lasts fewer than five minutes and will be Glass's only
performance of the evening.
Before leaving the stage, Glass introduces Michael Riesman, maestro and de
facto master of ceremonies this evening.
Riesman's CV and broad skill set are impressive. He's a composer, conductor,
pianist and producer, and accomplished in all four fields. He has conducted
and produced most of Glass's soundtrack recordings, and is musical director of
the Philip Glass Ensemble, a position he has held for the last 25 years.
He performs tonight with the M & M Ensemble, a group of talented Dutch
musicians, featuring Lavinia Meijer on harp, Rosanne Philippens and Marieke de
Bruijn on violin, Anna-Magdalena den Herder on viola, Pepijn Meeuws on cello,
and Niek de Groot on double bass. Meijer, you may recall, also performed
during the first evening's concert.
The first piece they play is 'The Hours Suite', Riesman's arrangement of music
from Glass's soundtrack to Stephen Daldry's film. The suite comprises three
movements, with Riesman simultaneously playing piano and conducting. It's a
feast for ear and eye.
A five minute intermission follows while Meijer's harp is removed, after which
Riesman and the ensemble return for the 'Dracula Suite'. This is another of
Riesman's arrangements of a Glass soundtrack, this time comprising five
movements. Again, Riesman plays piano and conducts.
By the time the momentary pause comes between the third and fourth movements
of the 'Dracula Suite', the city is slowly surrendering to the mayhem of
Koninginnenacht and the siren of an ambulance or a police car can be heard
wailing in the distance.
An encore of 'Raising The Sail' from Glass's score to 'The Truman Show',
introduced by the composer himself to delighted gasps from some in the
audience, rounds off the live music component of the evening's proceedings.
It's in the break between the programmed music and this encore piece that the
gentleman to my right decides to take me to task for recording the concert.
I've tried to be discreet, but I'm in the front row, seated in a narrow chair,
and it's pitch black. There's no sea of people with outstretched arm, watching
the concert through their mobile phone's camera, so the dim glow of my
recorder's screen and its pulsating level meters acts like a miniature flare,
penetrating the darkness.
As a taper, foremost in my mind is ensuring that this fellow doesn't ruin the
recording, so I quickly employ a variety of strategies to extricate myself
from his attention, first ignoring him, then politely smiling, and finally
uttering an appeasing word or two. He tells me that he knows "Phil" Glass and
the people who organised the concert, and leaves me in no doubt as to his
opinion of my blatant disregard of the rules of concert attendance.
Thankfully, he falls silent again in time for 'Raising The Sail', which leads
into the evening's main intermission, forming a neat dividing line between the
film music and dance elements of the concert.
As the lights come up and the intermission commences, friends and
acquaintances of the man who has made my business his business convene around
him from elsewhere in the hall.
It's all been a mere difference of opinion thus far, which is fair enough, but
my neighbour now begins to inform his friends and acquaintances that he'd like
to introduce them to the man who has taken it upon himself to record tonight's
concert.
Uh-oh. The stakes have been raised and I'm now beginning to feel irked. This
is turning unpleasant, but with discretion being the better part of valour, I
decide that I am going to speak again only if spoken to on the subject.
The man and his friends cast me a disdainful glance and retire to the upstairs
bar, leaving me to stew in my assigned seat in a sold-out venue. There's
nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, so I sit there like a newly hatched chick
in an exposed cliff-top nest, waiting for the birds of prey to swoop and claim
me.
It can surely only be a matter of time before one of the many sets of
footsteps I hear around me during the intermission has me as its destination.
I await the inevitable 'Excuse me, sir' that every taper dreads, but this
one's even worse, because I know it must be coming. Strangely, however, it
fails to materialise.
In the interim, I've switched SD cards and stashed the original to safeguard
the evening's endeavours. I've also witnessed the clearing of the stage, so
that it's now apparent that the dance performance about to take place will be
executed to recorded music, not live. That had already appeared to be the case
from the programme handed to me on the way in, but I tend to take nothing for
granted.
It's a relief. The live music is over, which means the recording is complete.
Wild horses couldn't drag it out of me now. If faced with the prospect of
having to hand it over or prematurely leaving the concert, I'll be choosing
the latter option and considering myself lucky.
It doesn't come to that, though. My disgruntled neighbour returns to his seat,
the lights go down and we ignore one another for the remainder of the
evening. I give him credit for that.
Glass returns to introduce the world premiere of 'Itaglio', a dance
presentation performed by Ellen Edinoff and choreographed by her husband,
Koert Stuyf. The performance is set to Glass's 'Naqoyqatsi'.
Stuyf and Glass go all the way back to the Juilliard School of Music in New
York, where they met while Glass was studying composition and Stuyf dance.
Edinoff's slow and deliberate movements are wasted on me. I'm not bored, but
I'm closer to that end of the spectrum than I am to rapture, which, judging by
the applause that follows Edinoff's performance, is the enviable state of mind
attained by many around me, including my vexed neighbour and his wife.
When the curtain call finally retreats into silence and the house lights come
up, it's a hasty exit stage left for this taper. Unless I'm mistaken, I'm
actually the first person to leave the building this evening, a feat I don't
think I've ever managed before.
As I bike home, I slalom between the pools of vomit, foetid reminders that
Koninginnenacht is now upon us.
And so to the recording, the source of tonight's consternation. Will it live
up to expectations?
I'm pleased to say that it does. My position in the front row has, indeed,
enabled me to capture an excellent record of the acoustic performance on
stage.
The only casualty of this approach is the spoken introductions. Because those
were softly spoken into a microphone and audible only through the house PA,
they lack clarity in my recording, as I occupied the worst possible location
for listening via the speakers.
Nevertheless, the introductions are intelligible and nothing has been lost but
some clarity. That sacrifice yields its benefit in the music, which is clear
and true to the sound coming from the instruments on stage.
As with the first night, I'm very happy with how this recording has turned
out. No equalisation or other post-processing has taken place, as none was
needed. With proximity to the musicians, good acoustics and no PA, there was
simply nothing to compensate for.
The studio soundtrack to 'Naqoyqatsi' has been removed for obvious reasons,
but I have kept and included Glass's introduction to it, for the sake of
completeness.