MUSIC/CLASSICAL
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‘ Ti. . Some would say a gin, others maybe a whisky, but neither has anything to do with the particular spirit oi perfection on offer from the SCO and their latest fascinating initiative. The indonesian Gameian in Glasgow, a project which started last month with a week oi workshops at the RSAMD. now moves to the Burrell Collection where the SCO plays host to the South Bank Centre’s Spirit oi Perfection, a stunning and beautifully decorated gamelan orchestra. So, what’s a gamelan orchestra? To really find out, there is no better way than to go along to the Burrell and see and try for yourself. Basically. it’s a collection of instruments from Indonesia, the South Bank one being donated by the people oi indonesia to the people oi Britain in 1986. They are mainly percussive instruments - lots of gongs, cymbals and other metal, usually bronze, instruments - so results from striking with a hammer or mallet are more or less instant, without too much practice
SPIRIT OF PERFECTION
required for an effective sound to be produced. in indonesia they are played everywhere from palaces to village halls, at private celebrations and public performances. The name given by the lndonesians to this collection is Kyal Lebdhajiwa, which translates to mean the Spirit of Perfection, hence the title. The Burrell workshops, which are already proving very popular, have their climax in a performance in the Banqueting Hall at Glasgow's City Chambers on Sunday 16 September when those who have successfully tried their hand at the Burrell, get to show off their new found skills in public. As part of the same evening, players from the South Bank accompany a Wayang Kuli performance, the traditional shadow puppet theatre of Indonesia - and there’s also a chance to sample some of theiriamous cuisine. (Carol Main)
Spirit oi Perfection, 20 Aug-15 Sept, The Burrell Collection, Pollok Park. Full details: 204 4848 (SCO).
SATURDAY 18
Glasgow
I Glasgow Festival oi British Youth Orchestras Stevenson Hall. RSAMD. 100 Renfrew Street. 332 5057. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2/free). Second appearance for NYOS in this year‘s Festival opens with Weber‘s overture to Der Freischutz. Kim Walker is soloist in the Bassoon Concerto by Mozart and Elgar‘s Symphony No 1 is featured in the second half. James Loughran returns to conduct.
I Bet Your Life The Old Athenaeum Theatre. Buchanan Street. Tickets: 227 5511 (Ticket Centre. Candleriggs). 7.30pm. £4 (£2). Extra dates: Thurs 23 (Irvine): Sat 25 (Clydebank): Tue 28 (Paisley); Fri 31 (East Kilbride). Sec Fri 17 for full description.
SUNDAY 19
Glasgow
I Organ Concert Art Gallery and Museum. Kelvingrove. Free at door. 2.30pm. Fortnightly Sun promenade recital.
MONDAY 20
Glasgow
I Glasgow Festival oi British Youth Orchestras Stevenson Ilall. RSAMD. 100 Renfrew Street. 332 5057. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2/free). Music for wind band from Borders Regional Wind Orchestra in a very varied and lively programme including Shostakovich. Bernstein. Ilolst and Percy Grainger.
I The Spirit of Perfection The Burrell Collection. Tickets and further information: 204 4848 (SCO). Exhibition and workshops at various times. A chance for budding Evelyn Glennies — old and young — to try their hand at the Indonesian Gamelan. an amazing collection ofmainly tuned percussion instruments. This particular gamelan orchestra was a special present to the South Bank in London from the President of Indonesia in 1987. Please ring SCO for full details oftimes.
TUESDAY 21 Glasgow
I Glasgow Festival of British Youth Orchestras Stevenson Hall. RSAMD. 100 Renfrew Street. 332 5057. 7.30pm. £3.50
(£2/free). Richard Evans conducts Fife Youth Orchestra in Fife composerludith Weir‘s Ride ()i'er Lake Constance. Brahms‘ Symphony No 2 and Beethoven‘s Iigmont ove rt ure.
I The Spirit of Perfection The Burrell Collection. Tickets and further
information: 204 4848 (SCO). Exhibition and workshops at various times. Please ring SCO for full details of times. See Mon 20.
I Music at the Burrell Burrell Collection. Pollok Park. Pollokshaws Road. 649 7151. 7.30pm. £6.50 (£5.50). The Edinburgh Quartet play string quartets by Elgar. Delius and Walton to complement the Joseph Crawhall exhibition.
WEDNESDAY 22 | Glasgow
I Glasgow Festival of British Youth Orchestras Stevenson Hall. RSAMD. 100 Renfrew Street. 332 5057. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2/free). A new visitor to the Festival is Reading Youth Orchestra. in a stunning programme of Stravinsky‘s Firebird ( 1919 version). Prokofiev‘s Piano Concerto No 1. the premiere of David Cooper‘s Names of The Angels and Respighi‘s Pines of Rome.
I The Spirit of Perfection The Burrell Collection. Tickets and further information: 204 4848 (SCO). Exhibition and workshops at various times. Please ring SCO for full details of times. See Mon 20.
THURSDAY 23 Glasgow
I Bet Your Life Magnum Theatre. Irvine. 0294 78381. See Fri 17 for full description. I Merchants Music Merchants‘ Hall. 7 West George Street. Tickets: 227 5511 (Ticket Centre. Candleriggs). 12.45pm. £2 (£1.50). The Whistlebinkies play traditional Scottish folk music.
I Glasgow Festival of British Youth Orchestras Stevenson I-Iall. RSAMD. 100 Renfrew Street. 332 5057. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2/free). Chamber orchestral music from some of Warwickshire‘s top young musicians by Corelli. Stamitz. Mendelssohn. Mozart (Symphony N033) and the Harpsichord Concerto by Walter Leigh.
I The Spirit of Perfection The Burrell Collection. Tickets and further information: 204 4848 (SCO). Exhibition and workshops at various times. Please ring SCO for full details of times. See Mon 20.
I Eugene Onegin Tron Theatre. 63 Trongate. 552 4267. 7.30pm. Extra dates: Sat 25; I November (Edinburgh). £5 (£2.50). The Scottish Opera Go Round tour reaching from Kirkwall in Orkney to Builth Wells in Wales opens at the Tron with its cast of seven and piano accompaniment from Alex (‘olinson. Director is Mark Brickman.
V ALBUMS
they‘re still not like anyone else. (Alastair
crossroads where
reputation would suggest. (Alastair Mabbott)
accordionist Angel I
junkie legend for all it's
I Pixies: Bossanova (4A0) It only seems like a couple of months since Doolittle. and Pixies have spent a good deal oftheirtime since then touring. so it wouldn‘t be unreasonable to expect Bossanova to show the strains ofa rushed job. Closer investigation. though. reveals that the band are still riding the crest ofa creative wave — an apt metaphor considering the surfinfluences hinted at on Doolittle and taken further here. There are rockers aplenty too. every bit as immediate as their predecessors. smashed through with customary Pixies’ vigour. The fragmentary edginess of Surfer Rosa is a long way behind the Pixies. but
Mabbott)
I David J: Songslrom Another Season (Beggars Banquet) After all those years of barnstorming with Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. David J. must have felt it was time to make something a bit more soothing. This he has. and it‘s a gentle balm to the ears. the strum of his acoustic guitar and wistful vocals occasionally being ruffled by sax. pedal steel or a muted rhythm section. The mood is sustained. helped along by extensive navel-gazing. A pleasant. but inconsquential couple of sides. (Alastair Mabbott) I Tev Falco's Panther Burns: Return of the Blue Panther(flew Bose)Tav Falco stands at a
rhythm‘n‘blues joins rockabilly and country. and the fourth road stretches south to Mexico and beyond. Glib as it sounds. I‘ve always thought of Falco as the singer Cramps‘ fans embraced when they grew up and wanted to face the rather more terrestrial concerns expressed here in covers of songs by Ray Charles. Charlie Feathers. Slim Harpo. Ilank Snow and more. All are recorded in Memphis. with barrels of echo and production values that would scarcely endear them to the arbiters of sanitised bilge. The Neopolitan instrumental ‘Mala Femmina‘. which plays the album in and out. suggests a greater versatility to Falco than his rockabilly frenzy
I MX-Bu: Das Love Boat/Angel Corpus Christi: The 80s (both a&r/ENT CDs) The words ‘loft‘ and ‘experimental‘ spring to mind when MX-805tart batteringtheir way through the speakers with the kind of heavy metal/jazz fusion that you feel must have inspired John Zorn and his ilk somewhere along the line. Their compilation. released in this country through Lindsay llutton‘s Grangemouth-based Next Big Thingoperation. spans 10 years but. sadly. only their instrumental work. Avant-garde it is. but highly listenable ofits kind. and Das Love Boat hints that their input into American New Music has been underestimated. Frisco-based
Corpus Christi and her band share MX-80‘s enthusiasm for Bernard Herrmann‘s movie scores
' (they dothethemc from ; Sisters. she welds together
the themes from Taxi Driver and New York. New York). and her
restrained accordion style I adds flourishes to songs by
Richard Hell. Suicide (only a partial success) and Lou Reed. The high spots are her touchingly mournful rendition of
i Alice Cooper‘s ‘I‘m 18‘
and her original songs ‘John Cassavetes‘ and ‘Hell'. which deserve to be honafide overground smashes. (Alastair Mabbott) ,
I Johnny Thunders: Stations of the Cross (Denceterie) Thunders is in lippy form on Stations. happy to trade on his
worth. and crowing. ‘I need a girl? I may need a fix. but I don‘t need agirl.‘ A live gig. recorded as the climax to a tortuous-sounding summerof filming fora low-budget Dick in which Thunders was to play Christ. this artefact shows that the ex-Doll did at least do one thing the director asked him to: provide an evening of loud. crude R&B in a way that only he can fora crowd that just laps upthis kinda stuff. ‘I need a fix. so I‘m gonna take five.‘ he swaggers before the interval. Is he an iconoclastic comic or just a brattish dickhead'? Thankfully. his onstage authority renders the question redundant for . most ofthe time. (Alastair Mabbott)
92 The List 17 - 23 August 1990