Festival Music
For everything you need to know about all the Festivals visit www.list.co.uk/festival FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Helsinki-based orchestra bring two nights of romance and drama
In a festival blockbuster of an orchestral programme at the Usher Hall, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s pair of concerts stands out as a triple celebration of one of Scandinavia’s greatest composers, Wagner and the human voice. In putting on Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s highly dramatic Symphony For up-to-the-minute Festival news follow us on Twitter: @thelistmagazine
No 4 ‘The Inextinguishable’ one night and his unusually structured Symphony No 5 the next, the Finns’ under chief conductor Sakari Oramo will, says EIF director Jonathan Mills, be ‘fantastic’. The fifth is remarkable for its solo side drum, which is meant to sound as if disrupting the music and continues as a rare chance for improvisation in a classical score.
The FRSO made its EIF debut in the 1998/99 season, just five years after Oramo, originally a violinist and leader of the orchestra, had stepped up to the podium at short notice to replace a sick conductor. Choosing between the orchestra with German mezzo Petra Lang (pictured, left) in Wagner’s intensely romantic Wesendonck Lieder (Sun 15 Aug) or the powerfully expressive Finnish bass baritone Juha Uusitalo giving a glimpse of his Wotan, (Mon 16 Aug) will be a hard call. (Carol Main) ■ Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 01, 15 Aug, and FRSO 02, 16 Aug, both Usher Hall, 473 2000, 8pm- 9.50pm, £10–£40.
PANTHA DU PRINCE Minimal techno joins dots between an alpine forest and the dancefloor ‘A girl once crawled onstage behind me, and was constantly holding my trouser,’ shudders Germany’s Hendrik Weber, alias techno forager Pantha du Prince. What fate befell this tactile fan? ‘I explained it would be better for her to leave because I could not move,’ he explains. ‘After a while she noticed that I was not very amused and went away.’
■ Oran Mor, Glasgow, Fri 13 Aug; Sneaky Pete’s, 0844 499 9990, Sat 14 Aug, 7pm, £10 THE UKULELE PROJECT Charming folk take on modern classics ●●●●●
On this evidence it’s quite hard to imagine Pantha straddling club-rock mythology, but that is not to detract from his knack for glacial electro of every stripe: minimal techno, chillwave, house and folk delineate his current album, Black Noise (Rough Trade).
The Ukulele Project make their festival debut here, bringing their unique take on everything from Radiohead and The Beatles to Plan B and Gorillaz. The young quartet open with a cheerful take on Blur’s ‘Country House’ and continue the lighthearted mood with a highly entertaining folk rendition of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’.
He’s also a rebel, in his own way: his A solo heartfelt performance from
mum and dad were a music teacher and singer respectively, but his inherent cultural impetus has always been to ‘maltreat’ the piano. Was this a rage against their traditional art? ‘My ideas were in creating new worlds.’ These worlds exist somewhere between alpine forest and urban dancefloor – although the two are interchangeable, according to Pantha: ‘the wandering around finding strange creatures, light, darkness and sounds: all somehow in-human,’ he sagely notes. (Nicola Meighan)
lead male vocalist Marcus of Radiohead’s ‘No Surprises’ was a definite highlight, followed closely by a seamless Beatles medley which manages to meander beautifully from ‘Twist and Shout’ to ‘Imagine’. The band look to add new
dimensions to their sound by using the ukulele as a form of percussion but this threatens to overpower the delicate acoustic nature of the song and the gentle airyness of the lead vocals, especially evident in songs like ‘Cecilia’.
The Besnard Lakes This Montreal quartet’s third album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night, has been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, which is Canada’s equivalent to the Mercury, and are up against the likes of Broken Social Scene, Caribou and Owen Pallett. Their woozy, gauzy dream pop adds a celestial, alt-rock spin on the falsetto charms of The Beach Boys or the pulsing rock beats of Fleetwood Mac. ■ Sneaky Pete’s , 08444 999 990, 17 Aug, 7pm, £9. Part of The Edge Festival.
64 THE LIST 12–19 Aug 2010