Thursday 4 October 2018

REVIEW: The Goldberg City Variations - RNCM, Manchester.




“Bach as you’ve never heard before” is perhaps a bit of a ham-fisted overstatement for this actually quite delicate and faithful interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Francesco Tristano leaves the Bach itself largely untouched and executes the score with a traditional modest flair. The contemporary touch actually comes from the accompanying dynamic geometric visuals, produced by Federico Nitti, generated live, projected onto a large screen at the back of the RNCM auditorium.This projection is of a growing architectural structure that builds in counterpoint to the famous interlocking melodies of Bach’s score. The audiovisual experience feels incredibly fitting in a modern and developing cosmopolitan Manchester setting.

The whole thing has a hypnotic quality. The audience experiences a city built in real time using Bach’s pitches as building blocks. The nimble piano melodies and considered geometric projections seem to dance with one another creating, at times, a mesmerising performance. Ultimately however the concept is only partially followed through. The opening moment with the drone and electronic keyboard is completely redundant and some of the text used in the imagery is clumsy. It comes across as an extremely innovative work in progress; unspent potential however gives way at times to frustration.  

Tristano’s Goldberg City Variations is beautiful, elegant and effortless but the lasting message at its close is one of future potential. 3D technology, warehouse locations, unconventional seating arrangements, all these could revolutionise this concept that Tristano, Pietrogrande and Nitti have started; a truly fresh way of presenting Bach in a contemporary context.

Tristano is a truly exciting new contemporary classical artist who has certainly only just begun to show what he is capable of.

Reviewer - Oscar Lister
on - 2/10/18

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