Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Bristol, England , 29 April 2009

Pretty self-explanatory
reviR
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by reviR »

OK so no takers here then - I guess those who want to go already have tickets. I returned the tickets to the Box Office yesterday and obtained a refund. When I first got through to the Box Office and asked about returns the lady took me for a buyer and immediately advised me that there had been a waiting list since last October and it was growing! When I finally stopped her flow she gratefully accepted the returns and now there will be two lucky people in row B on the 29th!

I am sure all that go will see a very special show in such a small venue.

I still hope to make the Barbican next week!
Deportee
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by Deportee »

Some pointers as I steward there - will start prompt at 8.00-8.05. Latecomers admitted on applause. No drinks in concert hall apart from bottled water and it can get very warm. No photography allowed, but all we do is ask you to stop unless you ignore two requests. Order interval drinks beforehand as getting served is a nightmare and interval is 25 mins. Quickest way to bar at interval is out double doors at back, turn right , down a few stairs and back in via the box office.

St G's is famous for its acoustics, so anyone recording should get a good sound (especially central balcony) and we're not specifically trained to spot recorders (as long as you agree to share it with me I won't tip my colleagues off!!)

I'm 5'8", greying, goatee, glasses, and will be loitering in the top left corner of the Crypt (with your back to the bar) and hope to see some of you there. In seat B19, which would have been next to reviR (pray all goes well for you).

Jim.
Partick Thistle - The Greatest Thing
snapyou
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by snapyou »

Deportee wrote:Some pointers as I steward there - will start prompt at 8.00-8.05. Latecomers admitted on applause. No drinks in concert hall apart from bottled water and it can get very warm. No photography allowed, but all we do is ask you to stop unless you ignore two requests. Order interval drinks beforehand as getting served is a nightmare and interval is 25 mins. Quickest way to bar at interval is out double doors at back, turn right , down a few stairs and back in via the box office.

St G's is famous for its acoustics, so anyone recording should get a good sound (especially central balcony) and we're not specifically trained to spot recorders (as long as you agree to share it with me I won't tip my colleagues off!!)

I'm 5'8", greying, goatee, glasses, and will be loitering in the top left corner of the Crypt (with your back to the bar) and hope to see some of you there. In seat B19, which would have been next to reviR (pray all goes well for you).

Jim.
Jim,i wish you were a steward at EVERY EC gig !
johnfoyle
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

It's been a lovely sunny day here in Bristol. I spent the day sitting around in coffee shops reading ( The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith ; I got a signed first edition in London), taking a ferry trip around the canals, checking out the Old Vic ( no matinee ; pity) and now it's back to the hotel for a wash and a nap before meeting Nick 'n co. at the venue. It's, by the way, stunning.
johnfoyle
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

In a c.three hour finale , Elvis 'n co. made it one to remember - and then some.

Besides the usual Brodsky set we got the acoustic ' Bell' , 'Moon' and ' Wine...'. To top it all we got a third encore of two songs not done in the last week. A brand new song all about executions called, possibly,' Condemened Man'. And then a Brodsky version of 'The Scarlet Tide' , 'admit you lied...' lyric.

Afterwards we got to meet , briefly, Brodsky's Paul and Jacqui. They were hugely appreciative/ astonished that I had been to all the shows. I apologised to Jacqui for being delighted that she broke a string in Manchester and she joked that it had 'all been planned'. We didn't hang around for Elvis. My friends had far to travel and I was/am a bit fried after one of the best weeks of my life.

'Man Out Of Time' wil post the proper setlist ASAP.
Neil.
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by Neil. »

Sounds great! So John, what was the attendance like in all the gigs? London was full - did the provinces turn out in force, generally? Were the venues full?
Deportee
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by Deportee »

What an awesome gig! too many highlights to mention. Great to hear the new songs and some brilliant arrangements by Paul Cassidy of songs from the entirety of EC's career.
Partick Thistle - The Greatest Thing
johnfoyle
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

After a hectic day of travel and catching up on some work, Ionly really have the energy to post these few images from last nights show -

Image


Image

I'll post more over the weekend.

Deportee - I asked a few goatee wearers if they were you but no success - next time!

Neil - besides the pretty much sold out Barbican and the sold out Bristol I reckon the other shows had 60% turnouts.

http://www.crackerjack.co.uk/bristol/re ... stol/music

Image

The Bristol Evening Post


Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet: St George's Bristol

Steve Harnell

Thursday 30th April 2009


Few modern songwriters have had a career with the scope of Elvis Costello. Although he's still best known for the spiky punk of his early hits, he's explored - and most importantly succeeded in - a dizzying array of styles including country and classical music.

And it was the latter which was to the fore last night at St George's. Ever the unpredictable artist, Costello has returned to a collaboration he first forged in 1993 with classical four-piece The Brodsky Quartet. Their album, The Juliet Letters, may have only found its way into the homes of the most devoted of fans but it remains an intriguing oddity in his back catalogue.

But first, a red herring. As Costello took the stage the quartet glided into the unmistakable first few bars of Accidents Will Happen. So were we to experience a retooling of his greatest hits for strings? Well, yes and no.

In among liberal sprinklings of the aforementioned Juliet Letters was a rummage around the dustier parts of his back pages.

The starkness of Costello's voice set against such minimal backing was at first startling, but his vocals have grown richer, warmer and stronger over the past 30 years and were more than up to the challenge at hand.

Jacqueline Thomas on cello gave the first selection from The Juliet Letters - For Other Eyes - palpable dramatic tension before the quartet adopted a percussive approach to Brutal Youth's Rocking Horse Road.

Costello even slipped in a little refrain of The Troggs' Wild Thing to win a quick giggle from the audience. And either my ears were deceiving me, or there was mischief, too, in I Almost Had a Weakness where the quartet riffed away on the Looney Tunes cartoon theme song.

Costello drew on his vast experience throughout, regularly wandering off mic to give his vocals subtle depth of field. You Turned To Me was sung with a smooth croon and the Irish folk song, Raglan Road, was beautifully delivered.

For All This Useless Beauty, Costello finally grabbed an acoustic guitar which had tantalisingly lain in wait at the back of the stage for the preceding 45 minutes.

Pills and Soap was a mid-set highlight given new vibrancy with the taut string accompaniment. Still, a hushed ballad from his album North, was another treat, too.

A storming reimagined Either Side of the Same Town then led us into a powerful trio of anti-war songs. I Thought I'd Write To Juliet was Costello's own take on correspondence he'd received from a Gulf War soldier. It was given added weight, too, by the eerie way violinists Daniel Rowland and Ian Belton made their instrumentals wail like air raid sirens.

Seamlessly, Costello then rushed headlong into Bedlam - an urgent rocker now recast as a sparring match between acoustic guitar and string section.

And then came a song which still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, Shipbuilding. Costello's emotive critique of the Falklands conflict is as good a protest song as you'll ever hear. You could hear a pin drop and it was the clear stand-out moment in the set.

By encore time, he was wandering around the front of the stage unamplified, delivering a new song and having fun with the old 30s standard PS I Love You.

The hardcore Costello fans will have been in their element and even the most occasional admirer must have been won over by one of the most charismatic and mesmerising singer-songwriters of this, or any, generation.
johnfoyle
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

Checking in on the Brodsky's site , it seems they've been having an eventful time -

http://brodskyquartet.blogspot.com/

Friday, 22 May 2009


Phew!

It's been a huge month, fantastically exciting to be playing with Elvis again and with a lot of new material to explore, as well as revisiting the Juliet Letters 15 years on...
Back to Glasgow three more times since the Shostakovich Cycle! With Elvis we returned to the venue which opened the first JL tour back in '93, the Royal Concert Hall, then back to the Academy for the In Memoriam concert with Joan Lluna and some teaching, then a fab outing with the Andalucian Dogs and the brilliant Dawn Upshaw at the extremely hip Indoor Fruit Market at City Halls.

In the meantime the EC tour took us up and down the country, ending at one of our favourite haunts, St George's Bristol, where we played for over three hours, such is the wealth of this man's output and the ever increasing number of arrangements it inspires in us.

The month ends with us learning works new to us - Verdi and Wolf - and a brand new commission from Isadora Zebeljan - all really exciting.

In the meantime, Pip the duck is two months old and huge! She's dipping in and out of her paddling pool-pond as I write and tomorrow she goes to live at our local city farm, to my great relief. After an incredibly busy month of work, the kids having school exams too, she was just one push too far. By this time next week we'll be taking a six day holiday. Can't wait!


Sunday, 16 August 2009

Oh dear,
sorry this is not a very interesting blog site. Lots of things have been happening but not much reported on I'm afraid!
Mon. 3rd Aug. Gave a concert in a french cloud... rain that put Derry and M'bro to shame. Then somehow survived horrible food-poisoning (yes, in France!) to do Boda Festival. 8 gigs in 4 days.

It's impossible to imagine what lies in store for one when one goes to a place like Boda (Arctic Norway), especially from the toilet floor but one can usually tell pretty soon upon arrival. We were looked after so beautifully there (so important when you spend your life dandering around the globe). Despite feeling SO terrible and the first concert being 'live' on EBU radio, the whole experience kicked into life with a memorable meal laid on by a most amazing gentleman named Morten. He had been the chairman of the festival for 8 years (irreplaceable I would have thought) and still kept the whole thing alive with his particular brand of extreme generosity. Our ensuing Shost Cycle in 5 different churches became all the lore memorable thanks to him; plying us with his boat trips, fish eagles, fjords, glaciers, fish cakes, champagne, barolo...... unforgettable.

The whole Festival comes to London's Cadogan Hall in Oct. Don't miss it.

Off on hols now for a wee while. Will try to write more in the autumn.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

You never did post more about it, John, but it looks a great venue. Great audience shot showing the average audience age!
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Man out of Time
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by Man out of Time »

What are your memories of St George's Bristol? Time to send in those photos of the back of people's heads (see above) and memories of Elvis and the Brodskys....

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/memories-S ... story.html

MOOT
johnfoyle
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Re: Costello & Brodskys Bristol Date 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

I'll be at this tonight , returning to where I last saw The Brodsky's, with Elvis in 2009.


https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/even ... me-of-war/

Friday 9 November 2018
7.30pm

Brodsky Quartet – In Time of War


Karen Tanaka At the grave of Beethoven
Schulhoff String Quartet No 1
Shostakovich String Quartet No 8
Brubeck Regret
George Crumb Black Angels

The title for Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli (In Time of War) is the starting point for this programme created by the Brodskys especially for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. The works they have chosen, are all powerful reflections on subsequent wars.

Karen Tanaka’s At the grave of Beethoven, calm and touching, was composed during the Bosnian conflict. Irwin Schulhof died in a Nazi concentration camp, but not before writing some of that time’s most exciting and original music. Shostakovich’s bleakly powerful 8th Quartet carries the inscription ‘For the victims of Fascism and War’ and was a response to the devastation caused by Allied bombing of Dresden.

Dave Brubeck’s Regret was his response to the 9/11 attack; and George Crumb’s remarkable Black Angels, signed off ominously on Friday 13th 1970, was a daringly original critique of the Vietnam War. There is nothing else like it in the string quartet literature: a piece – with its eerie, amplified effects and bowed, tuned wind glasses – that the Brodskys reckon to be ‘surely one of the stand-out quartets of all time’.

brodskyquartet.co.uk
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Bristol, England , 29 April 2009

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Ah, you answered my last question here! Same event, but curiously with a different name. I'm looking forward to it even more now!
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