Manchester Camerata is known for its creative ambition and passion for making music as engaging and transformative for the listener as it can be. Eleven members of the Camerata went on stage in the pink room at Yes, which had been transformed into the Red Room for the night, to play the soundtrack for the cult TV series 'Twin Peaks'. As we entered we were drawn to the stage which was lit in red and had the camcorder footage of Laura Palmer dancing projected on loop. To the side of the stage, life size statues of two Greek women were on display as if plucked straight from the Red Room itself and 'Wanted' posters with Bob’s picture were dotted around the venue. These simple gestures set the tone for the night and very soon a couple of hundred eager 'Twin Peaks' fans were standing with anticipation waiting for the event to begin.
When the band came on stage and started, the opening tones of the 'Twin Peaks' theme soon washed over us – what a delight it was to hear this iconic theme live! The band was made up of electric guitar, electric and double bass, keyboard, drums, a string quartet and a woodwind trio with saxophone, bass clarinet and alto and tenor flute. This is an unusual band set up and it really struck me that the soundtrack from this series really exploited the emotive impact of the various sonorities that these instruments – particularly the woodwind – can create.
Laura Palmer’s theme really touched the heart strings of the audience – indeed one member in front of me had to leave in tears. This moving theme was used in the film as a motif that really effectively made us feel for Laura and mourn her. The association was still felt in the live performance and indeed as the night progressed different songs brought up memories of the characters and places in the series. This really brought home the genius of Angelo Badalamenti’s song writing – motifs are used in many movies and television shows from Star Wars to Chernobyl, but Badalamenti not only successfully creates strongly symbolic themes which are instantly memorable and recognisable but also adds a deeply emotive element which has high impact on the viewer.
This was definitely obvious at this performance as the audience were deeply moved by the music. The Twin Peaks and Laura Palmer themes were performed at different times throughout the programme, with slight variations as in the original series. The band played the various songs with a near perfect fidelity to the originals – some improvisation was had but this was tastefully done and fully fitting with the style. The music itself varied in style from the haunting themes to the humorous ambient cool jazz with its wandering double bass lines, back beat finger clicking and mysterious melodies on vibraphone and tenor sax.
Hearing the soundtrack live was a real treat and indeed was completely engaging from start to finish. The audience was standing attentively, swaying to the music and smiling with more than one or two couples arm in arm romantically. The venue was a great choice for this performance and while we were too engrossed to leave our places and go to the bar in the room, we moved upstairs to the roof terrace afterwards to discuss what we had just heard.
The Manchester Camerata musicians are clearly very talented and versatile – I recognised one or two faces from a Beethoven concert in the summer and switching from Romantic orchestral music to jazz and pop wasn’t an issue. This music had its challenges and all were mastered beautifully. In particular the woodwind section and the keyboard player stood out. There was real subtlety in the music which was performed with a lot of feeling, particularly some quiet sections which were really haunting.
This soundtrack lends itself well to live performance. If there was one thing I would have added, it would have been a vocalist to sing the couple of songs that appear on the soundtrack – we had a purely instrumental concert.
I really enjoyed this evening and I would definitely go back to hear this again – hopefully this will not have been a one-off and the Camerata will maybe someday bring us back to 'Twin Peaks' and maybe try some of the material from the third series too.
Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 31/10/19
No comments:
Post a Comment