NOVEMBER 29th, 2011:
There seems to be some strange confusion
about what Nigel’s new composition The Four Elements actually consists of. At least in the minds of some would-be critics, one in New Zealand, one in Scotland, and one, I’m ashamed to say, in Canada ! All of them are under the impression that The Four Elements is a reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The anonymous lady or gentleman in New Zealand writes:
‘Kennedy might describe The Four Elements as Vivaldi put to an electro beat but I suspect that Antonio, the red-headed priest, would not welcome this acknowledgement.’
While John Terauds in Canada, who at least puts his name where his mouth is, says:
‘A generation later, Kennedy is back with a total reinterpretation [of The Four Seasons] ..Be warned, though: There is nary a note of Vivaldi anywhere in this strange and restless collection of musical miscellanies.’
Then there is Keith Clarke, who writes as follows:
‘Having ditched EMI after 15 years, demon fiddler Nigel Kennedy is making a splash with his new label, Sony Classical, his first disc re-exploring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, complete with improvisation, progressive rock, female vocals. Oh, and drums. As he gracefully explained to The Scotsman: “With Vivaldi I always think I f***ing own this music, but when I realised I was going to be touring it again, I had to do something new with it. I couldn’t do the same shit as when I done the last album.” The something new includes an encore, “It’s Plucking Elemental,” sung by Kennedy, who introduces it with a belch. It will all probably fan the flames of fundamentalist ire, although even die-hard traditionalists should have become inured to Nige’s wilder excesses by now.’
Well, Mr/Ms New Zealand, Mr. Terauds, and Mr. Clarke, Nigel HAS been playing a reinterpretation of Vivaldi on his concert tour in Germany, but The Four Elements is not it ! Let’s spell this out for once and for all, shall we ? If you go to one of the current concerts you will hear two entirely separate pieces: in the first half, Nigel and OOL will play a new version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) which Nigel has indeed described as ‘Vivaldi put to an electro beat.’ After the intermission, you’ll hear Nigel’s Four Elements (Air, Earth ,Fire, Water)................the only common factor being that they’ll both be played by the same performers ! Nigel has said that he got the idea for The Four Elements as a twenty-first century response to Vivaldi’s composition...........four seasons/four elements.....got it ?
The Four Elements has already been released as a CD. Once the current German tour is over, Nigel and the orchestra will head into the recording studio again, this time to put the new version of The Four Seasons on to CD. If you want to hear this new version live, go to one of the concerts in Germany or buy tickets for the coming tour in the UK in January. (See CONCERTS page)
Is this clear now? I do hope so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,this is all incredibly tedious stuff, isn’t it ?
But I can’t let it all go without pointing out to Mr/Ms New Zealand that we can’t possibly know what the red-haired priest would have felt about anything that has happened since his death, which makes speculation about it not only tedious but positively stressful ! And, Mr. Terauds, do I really have to tell you that there are only so many notes in western scales and that to declare that not a single note used by Vivaldi crops up in Kennedy is absolutely ludicrous?
Thank goodness that’s over and done with ! Phew !
Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet got your copy of The Four Elements CD, go to NIGEL’S MUSIC, read what some fans have said about it, and then go buy the thing. Trust me.
Still a chance to hear this live in the UK.............get booking !
(Courtesy YouTube)
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From what I hear, the concert tour in Germany is going very well. My friend Christa was at the one in Hamburg and the one in Berlin and according to her ‘Die Konzerten in Hamburg u. Berlin waren SUPER !” I don’t really think you need me to translate, do you ? What’s happening, of course, is that the usual scenario is playing out: i.e. people buy tickets for the concert of their choice, wonder what to wear, get themselves to the venue, settle themselves comfortably in their seats, respond enthusiastically to what they’re hearing, applaud, stand up and applaud, demand encores and finally go home with the music still ringing in their ears. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it ? Ah, but wait ! Someone else has infiltrated this happy audience.........THE MUSIC CRITIC ! And what is he/she going to do ? Well, I don’t know how critics actually go about their nefarious business, but what’s going to come of it is a review of the concert published in the morning papers.
Let’s take a specific case in point. Herr Frank Armbruster, armed with notebook and pencil, got himself to the concert in Stuttgart. I don’t propose to burden you with everything he wrote, but I will tell you that he begins with a description of Nigel as he sees him. The fact that Nigel’s appearance is well known to just about everybody along with the fact that it has nothing to do with the music anyway appears to elude him. He goes on:
‘Even the music that Kennedy played with his band, the Orchestra of Life, in the Beethoven Hall in Stuttgart, makes use of the material of bygone times.’
Well, yes. If you’re playing Vivaldi, you’re going to be making use of the material from bygone times, aren’t you ? Even if you’re playing your own composition, you’re highly unlikely to have invented a totally new type of music that owes absolutely nothing to what has gone before. Hmm !
Herr Armbruster warms to his theme and tells us that the new version of The Four Seasons bears little resemblance to the original, a difference that he finds embarrassing: there are drums and backing singers and when Nigel picks up his electric violin, things go from bad to worse. The best he can say about it is that he would classify it as ‘elevator music.’ I’m never quite sure what elevator music is; if they play Bach in an elevator, does that make Bach elevator music ? My doctor plays Mozart in his waiting room..............does that make Mozart waiting room music ? Anyway, let that go. Here’s Herr Armbruster in full cry with regard to The Four Elements, as played in Stuttgart:
‘Kennedy's four-movement opus The Four Elements was like an overabundance of leftovers from the baroque, rock, film music and ethnopop: sugar-sweet melodies of well-aged chord progressions, endlessly repeated empty phrases, dolled up in art rock style, alternating with the self-indulgent solo escapades of the bandleader Kennedy, whose unfortunate presentations demanded something of self-control from his fellow musicians.’
Pause to catch our breaths ! It’s all right..............I don’t know half of what Herr A. is on about, either, but that’s what he says............I checked with Hilary to make sure that I had translated it correctly ! What I do know is that he is sitting there like little Jack Horner with his Christmas pie and instead of getting on with it and enjoying his pie, he's putting in his thumb and pulling out a plum and saying 'What a good boy am I !' In his case, he's simply naming what he thinks are influences and not hearing the music at all ! Fortunately, he ends on a pithy note:
‘We do not even want to talk about his bad jokes.’
Nigel with Z-star...........Fire !
(Courtesy YouTube)
That’s the music critic. Here are the concertgoers who, I want to stress, were at the self-same concert !
Concert goer:
Yesterday, I've seen Nigel Kennedy. For me, the only sounds for 30 years have been rock and metal, but this concert was just awesome. Certainly I have no comparison as "non-classical music aficionados." And if Herr Armbruster writes of bad jokes, then he simply does not understand the British sense of humor.
Reiner Moldinger:
Herr Armbruster, tell me please where these elevators are. Because I want to go listen, if something like this is played! The concert by Nigel Kennedy and his Orchestra on Wednesday was for me one of the finest concert experiences I've ever had. Fresh, joyous, full of energy. The audience seemed to agree: standing ovation at the end of the regular program, and then another 20 minutes encores. Too bad that Herr Armbruster’s expectations had not allowed him to enjoy the concert.
Brigitte Häberle
For the concert we travelled more than 150 kilometers and loved it. If you know Kennedy, you know what to expect. The criticism is very strange......... maybe the critics leave the concert early ? The background singers completed the perfect soundscape.
Michael Rein:
Dear Herr Armbruster,
I find your criticism to say the least inappropriate. Above all your language is of the genre for which you blame Mr. Kennedy.
I was at the concert. Well, Mr. Kennedy is just a "punk" - so what ?. He has mastered his instrument, however, perfectly. His unconventional ideas in the four seasons / four elements performances made me very upset at first. However, I came up with another emotion in the concert, where I just let myself be carried away by the music and I did not get the impression that I was the only one. Nothing is more subjective than what we call reality. So it is with your criticism, and with my experience on Wednesday night in the music hall. Gaga....... but then aren’t we all ?
And there you have it.
How about a couple of comments from an insider ? Lizzie Ball is the leader of the OOL and here are a couple of things she put on her website:
‘Best concert moment so far:.Kennedy gets on his knees, then lies down completely on his back onstage whilst playing Prelude 2 a Kiss perfectly!’
And this:
‘Wow ! Tonight’s concert in Regensburg was ama-a-a-zing. OOL TOTALLY rocked it in an emergency situation. Poor NK was stuck in horrendous traffic following 2 motorway accidents on his route, and so we had to begin the concert without him - we vibed it up with amazing singing and playing, all the way from Xantone Blacq, Zee Star, and all my OOL HOMIES ! NK then entered half way through the elements to rapturous applause, and we continued with the 4 seasons... Great job, everyone !’
This has been a gruelling tour for the musicians with 23 concerts in the month of November. So what would you think Nigel would do when they all get a night off ? What he does, in fact, do is round up Piotr, Adam and Krzysztof, find a jazz club and show up for a gig. Here they are in Oberhausen playing “Father and Son.”
Perfect, isn’t it ?
AUGUST 17th, 2011:
Blimey, guv - good old Nigel is at it again. In an age when much of the world feels toothless and truthless, he hasn't lost one bit of his bite or his bark. The Guardian reports:
"In a broadside at fellow musicians, he said that some were sidelining Bach into "a rarefied and effete ghetto" while others were turning "philosophical masterpieces" into "shallow showpieces". He despaired at musicians who have "learned the same technical way [and who] all play the same technical way". A protege of Yehudi Menuhin, Kennedy wrote in programme notes for last weekend's performance that "four melodic notes from Yehudi are worth more than a thousand from any of our living violinists", adding that "Bach speaks through Menuhin's violin"."
' I sadly know very little about Bach or any other classical music, so I doubt I'd be able to tell whether a performance is trying to be authentic or not. The only way I have of gauging how good a performance of any music is whether it makes the hair on my arm stand up when I hear it.'
But the comment I really cherish is this one:
