From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V15 #6 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Sunday, December 4 2011 Volume 15 : Number 006 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [pt] Some 1 Dec 2011 Night of Hunters tour Philly thoughts [handal@r2d2.r] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2011 06:46:07 -0500 (EST) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: [pt] Some 1 Dec 2011 Night of Hunters tour Philly thoughts Hi, All, I agree with the reviewer who wondered why it took Tori so long to reach an incarnation such as on this album and tour. I always felt a full orchestra was likely to subsume her voice and even her mighty Boesendorfer if a vigilant effort weren't made to keep it toned-down much of the time, yet the move toward an orchestral sensibility always seemed just a matter of time. The smaller ensemble on Night of Hunters and the Apollon Musagete Quartett on the road feels like the Goldilocks bowl of porridge--just right. This show achieves wonderful balance between Tori and the Apollonians. I often have problems with string players, mainly due to issues of pitch. The Apollonians exist far beyond any such troubles. Not only is their pitch dead-on, they perform as one in every sense. Their bowing technique allows them to bend and flow among themselves in an impressive complementary manner. One begins leaning into his note; others ease in seamlessly nanoseconds behind. They perform with abundant expression as a group, turning muscular bowing into a breathing, sinewous creature. Always. Plucking, striking wood as an *ad* *hoc* percussion section for lengthy passages, or going for records in using rosin, it can't be overstated how much these fellows act as a unit. This is done so as to meet Tori's vocal and piano power with equipoise. As much as I remain a strong admirer of Steve Caton's guitar, even on the 1996 Dew Drop Inn tour when it was just the two of them, one detected an ongoing deference to her. Not so with these Apollonians. They are her sonic equal when it comes to wielding power, and the musical roll in the hay onstage between Tori and them works to everyone's advantage, especially the listener's. When Tori came out onstage in 1996 on said DDI tour, she would begin by pounding the keys of her model 275 Boesendorfer with abandon. On this tour, she pounds the keys of her 280 just as much, but rather than extemporized cascading arpeggios, she is performing proscribed notes--it's major, *serious* pounding, but proscribed nonetheless. And the Apollonians meet her and push back! Mark has them amplified to near rock-band levels. (In Philly the concert began a bit on the boomy side, but was quickly adjusted.) Chest cavity-resonating notes from the gorgeous instruments of the Apollonians match perfectly with the woody tones of the Boesendorfer. We're not in Steinway country, folks. And amen to that. One might have logically expected Tori to be conducting the Apollonians somewhat, if discreetly. She conducts her rock brothers more. The Apollonians create their music with no conductor as does the Prague Chamber Orchestra, which is famous for doing this. First violinist Pawel Zalejski sways and leans into his notes and the others also move a great deal in focused concentration, but if Zalejski does much conducting in the process it wasn't detected by me. These guys are a unit, plain and simple. Due to this, the music unfolds in the most natural sort of conversation-- as a duet among five players. It's Tori in planetary opposition with the four Apollonians. I made no notes other than my customary start and stop times and the end time for the main set before encores. It's been more than customary for Tori to come out no earlier than an hour after the opener begins, 7:30 in this instance, so I was surprised when we were darkened and the Apollonians emerged at 8:21. After the main set concluded at 9:50 there seemed a rush to be done by 10;15, which they were. I never heard of a 10:15 curfew. Odd. Be advised that if you're used to Tori coming out in her traditional timing, you may want to be in place a bit earlier on this tour. My ongoing thesis has long been that Tori keeps getting better and better, and nothing on Night of Hunters nor at the Philly concert has done anything but confirm this idea. John Philip Shenale's new string arrangements for many older songs shine, but the underlying architecture of the Night of Hunters material makes them feel they're in their natural state. Those new songs seem a rich aged wine after Beaujolais Nouveau. Tori has come to have great facility with and a wide usable range of sounds on her synthesizers. On Live from the Artists Den a couple years ago < http://theartistsden.com/episodes/amos.shtml >, the way she used certain sounds on her synth as accompaniment to the piano--playing one with each hand simultaneously--constituted a newly imagined form of chamber music. On this tour she employs this technique sometimes, while having a fully new area to operate in with this coequal partner of the Apollonians. Wonders never cease. What's next? Oh yeah--full orchestra recordings to come out next year plus the musical in London, if it can be gotten back on track. Amazing. I'm looking forward to Monday's Constitution Hall concert in D.C., after which my presence is required locally until mid-month. As for after that, I plan to start searching my travel options to Texas. http://undented.com/tour Be seeing you, Richard Handal ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V15 #6 ************************************