Category Archives: music

Erotikon (1920) + Matti Bye Ensemble

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Erotikon
Director: Mauritz Stiller
Writer: Gustaf Molander, Arthur Nordén, Mauritz Stiller
Based on: Ferenc Herczeg‘s play
Cast: Anders de Wahl, Tora Teje, Karin Molander, Elin Lagergren, Lars Hanson, Vilhelm Bryde, Bell Hedqvist, Torsten Hammarén, Vilhelm Berndtson
With music by: Matti Bye, played by the Mattie Bye Ensemble
Part of: Film and Music Cycle
Seen on: 27.2.2017

Plot:
Entomologist Leo Charpentier (Anders de Wahl) spends most of his time with his research and very little time with his wife Irene (Tora Teje). Especially since he has his niece Marthe (Karin Molander) who takes care of his every need. Irene actually doesn’t mind that much because she’s very busy flirting with the dashing aviator and baron, Felix (Vilhelm Bryde), though she’s actually drawn more to her husband’s best friend, the sculptor Preben (Lars Hanson).

Erotikon is an amazingly funny film. While the live-music-setting usually calls more attention to the film music, in this case, I found the film so captivating that I barely noticed the music.

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Keaton Henson

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Keaton Henson gave a concert in the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Seen on: 30.1.2017

Henson doesn’t often play concerts (he has anxiety which makes performing live so much harder), so when I heard that he would play the Konzerthaus, I knew I had to go (even though there were two more concerts I went to in January). Since I couldn’t convince anybody of the eerie beauty of his voice enough to accompany me, I went on my own. Going alone to a concert is something I have very mixed experiences with, but in this case, it completely paid off.

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José González with The Göteborg String Theory (Support: Hanna Leess)

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José González gave a concert with The Göteborg String Theory in the Gasometer in Vienna. Their supporting band was Hanna Leess.
Seen on: 28.1.2017

This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen José González live, but it has to be one of my favorite concerts of his. Accompanied by the big Göteborg String Theory orchestra, his music does get a bit more drive – which I appreciated for a concert.

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Steaming Satellites

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Steaming Satellites [German link] gave a concert at the Metropol in Vienna.
Seen on: 12.1.2017

Steaming Satellites are among my favorite (Austrian) bands and it took me a while to finally catch one of their concerts. So when I found out about their show at the Metropol, I knew I had to go. And it was a great concert, although different from what I expected in a few ways.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers (Support: Deerhoof)

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers played a concert in Vienna, with support group Deerhoof.
Seen on: 21.11.2016

It’s been a while that I listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it just had been a while that I really connected to their music (also because it had been quite a while that they actually had a new album out and everything after Californication was doomed to be a bit of a disappointnment, with I’m With You an actual disappointment). But then I started listening to their last album, The Getaway and it obviously hit me at the right moment and made me fall in love with their music again. So I decided to shell out the steep ticket prices and go to their concert in the Stadthalle in Vienna with my sister. It was with her that I had been on my first and last RHCP concert 10, 15 years or so ago, which wasn’t all that great (maybe because we had seats so high up, I could barely make out what happened on stage and maybe because I was too sad about the fact that I was too young to catch them on their Californication tour).

That’s all so you know the circumstances under which I attended the show, because it’s not easy to navigate the mix of love, nostalgia, (fear of) disappointment and seat trepidation that framed the concert for me. But as difficult as the starting conditions were, I absolutely loved the concert itself. It was a great show.

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Kammerorchester Basel / Blechacz / Pinnock

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The Kammerorchester Basel played a concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock and with Rafał Blechacz on the piano.
Seen on: 24.6.2016

Their program consisted of some Ludwig van Beethoven (overture to op. 43 The Creatures of Prometheus, op. 19 Piano Concerto Number 2, the adagio cantabile of op. 13 Piano Sonato Number 8), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (K 543 Symphony Number 39), Frédéric Chopin (op. 56/2 Mazurka) and finally Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (the third movement of op. 107 Symphony Number 5).

To be quite honest with you, I don’t know much about classical music and I only heard this concert because my mom couldn’t attend and my dad was looking for somebody to go with him. So this review isn’t so much a review than it is a few thoughts jotted down for completion’s sake.

I definitely enjoyed the concert. The music was beautiful, though I honestly enjoyed the Mendelssohn Bartholdy most of all – even though that was only a small encore and certainly not the focus of the concert. But I’m simply a sucker for romantic classical music. I am sure they played very well, but here’s the part where I simply cannot say anything of substance. A big part of my entertainment though, was watching Pinnock conduct. We had great seats, so I was able to see him and his expressions quite clearly and he just seemed to have so much fun and enjoy himself so much and I think that transferred to the orchestra, the music and the audience.

In short, it was a great evening, even for a classical music novice like myself.

Trevor Pinnock

Trevor Pinnock

The Gold Rush (1925) + ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester

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The Gold Rush
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite, Georgia Hale
Part of: Film and Music Cycle in the Konzerthaus
With music by Charles Chaplin played by the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester under direction of Cornelius Meister
Seen on: 24.5.2016

Plot:
A Lone Prospector (Charles Chaplin) makes his way to Klondike, hoping to find gold and with it, his luck. But the conditions there are more than harsh and soon he finds himself lost in the cold. By chance, he stumbles on a hut where he finds Black Larsen (Tom Murray) who tries to get rid of him. Instead, they are joined by a third gold digger, Big Jim MacKay (Mack Swain). In an uneasy truce they have to make it through the storm together somehow. But will their luck be enough to make it through?

The Gold Rush is an amazing film, no doubt about it. It is incredibly funny and touching at the same time, further proving that Chaplin is such an icon for a reason [even if it makes me deeply uncomfortable to say that about a guy who was way too much into teenage girls].

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Roses

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Roses is a “Freak Cabaret” by the Dakh Daughters band, directed by Vlad Troitsky.
Part of: Wiener Festwochen
Seen on: 17.5.2016

The Dakh is a theater in Kiev, out of which grew the Dakh Daughters band: an all-female group that takes existing songs and texts, mix them with each other and new things and give them their own twist. The result is a highly political, emotional cabaret concert that reminded me of The Tiger Lillies, but at the same time is very much its own thing. I was absolutley taken with it.

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Neobychainye priklyucheniya mistera Vesta v strane bolshevikov [The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks] (1924) + PHACE

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Neobychainye priklyucheniya mistera Vesta v strane bolshevikov
Director: Lev Kuleshov
Writer: Nikolai Aseyev, Vsevolod Pudovkin
Cast: Porfiri Podobed, Boris Barnet, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Sergey Komarov, Leonid Obolensky, Vera Lopatina, G. Kharlampiev
Part of: Film and Music Cycle in the Konzerthaus
With music by PHACE
Seen on: 29.3.2016

Plot:
USAmerican Mister West (Porfiri Podobed) is tasked with traveling to Russia to see the land of the Bolsheviks for himself. Trouble is, all West knows about Russia is a magazine article making them out to be the worst kind of savages and Mr West is pretty much scared out of his wits. So he takes his faithful companion Jeddy the Cowboy (Boris Barnet) and starts praying. Once he reaches Russia, West is actually robbed. The thieves find the magazine and decide to create the savage land portrayed there for West, sure that they can squeeze some money out of him that way.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks is a funny, albeit silly film. The music by PHACE wasn’t that much my cup of tea, but it works as accompaniment to the film.

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Hozier (Support: Rhodes)

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Hozier played a concert in Vienna with the support of Rhodes.
Seen on: 25.2.2016.

Unfortunately, the organization at the Gasometer, the concert venue was less than ideal. We were queuing for a good long while before one entrance to the concert hall where nothing budged for at least 30 minutes. After that time somebody from the organization team told us that we should head to the other entrance which was empty. Why they didn’t give us that information before, nobody knows. In any case, after we headed there, it took us another 15 minutes to get in and yet another 10 minutes to check our coats. By the time we finally got to the stage itself, Rhodes was done playing and Hozier was about to start.

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