Kristen Loken
FLAME BURNS BLUE: Elvis Costello sang orchestrated arrangements of his pop tunes in concert with the San Francisco Symphony. The orchestra also played excerpts from his 2000 classical work "Il Sogno" ("The Dream").
http://insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_3648004
Whatever the genre, Elvis Costello makes a song most meaningful
By Leslie Katz, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
The line between classical and pop music was appealingly blurred Monday night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco when Elvis Costello opened his 2006 tour with a stirring program.
In a San Francisco Symphony presentation, the show opened with Costello's 2000 full-length orchestral composition, "Il Sogno" ("The Dream"), a piece commissioned by Italian dance company Aterballetto for its ballet adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Later, Costello, with the help of San Francisco's Michael Tilson Thomas, revised the score for a 2004 Deutsche Grammophon recording featuring MTT leading the London Symphony Orchestra.
MTT wasn't in the house, though. In perhaps the only rock concert moment of the evening, someone in the audience yelled, "Where's MTT?" to no response. Conducting duties went to the New Zealand-born Alan Broadbent, who has served as touring musical director for Costello's wife Diana Krall.
Before the orchestra began, Costello thanked MTT and briefly greeted concertgoers in the sold-out hall with a modest disclaimer: They wouldn't be hearing a symphony, but rather a "series of episodes" linked to certain characters. And with a nod to fans most familiar with his prolific pop career, he gave the OK for people to clap — whenever.
"Don't wait until the end to applaud. Knock yourself out," he said. "It's San Francisco. Take your clothes off."
But the audience, which looked to be a mix of open-minded symphony subscribers (who apparently got first dibs on the tickets) and die-hard Costello followers, took a short while to get with the program. It wasn't until the second or third pause in the 30-minute piece did people feel moved to clap.
Although detailed program notes outlined scenes of the ballet giving listeners markers for enjoying the music, the piece's varied landscape didn't really benefit from the explanations. "Il Sogno" represents a pleasing, if not revolutionary, blend of influences from Debussy to Stravinsky to Bernstein to Bacharach.
Not all 24 "episodes" on the recording were played. Eighteen were presented, featuring amiable melodies sprinkled throughout, with special attention given to the saxophone, vibraphone, cimbalom and jazz drum. The ending, however, came quite abruptly.
Wearing a tux for the second half of the concert, Costello took the stage to sing 13 pop songs, most fantastically dressed up in full orchestral arrangements. Just three tunes into the show, the experience began to feel like something you'd want to go on forever, hearing Costello go through his entire huge repertoire with new, evocative interpretations. He's so good, he probably could even pull off a symphonic version of "Pump It Up." (He didn't play that one.) The lineup was rich, beginning with "Still" from the 2003 album, "North," a collection of moody, bittersweet ballads. Next came the ballad "Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue" written for Charles Brown and arranged by Bill Frisell.
The ultra-poppy "Veronica," co-written by Paul McCartney, was a real treat — the only number not featuring symphony accompaniment. Costello played acoustic guitar and his longtime pianist Steve Nieve pounded out a thrilling, passionate version that highlighted Costello's often hard-to-decipher lyrics.
"Speak Darkly My Angel," off Costello's 2006 release "My Flame Burns Blue," was a tune written for his Brodsky Quartet collaborations. It was followed by a gorgeous version of "Almost Blue." The old rock standby "Watching the Detectives," done big band-style with lots of brass, took on a whole new meaning, and afterward Costello remarked he felt like Efrem Zimbalist Jr. should have been in the room.
Back in a mellow mood, Costello sang a smoky Billy Strayhorn melody, "My Flame Burns Blue," to which he wrote new lyrics, then moved to the gorgeously devastating new "She Handed Me a Mirror" from a collaboration with Copenhagen's Royal Danish Opera based on Hans Christian Andersen's infatuation with Jenny Lind. Costello said it was about "a misfit man in love with an unattainable woman."
Another Brodsky Quartet number off "The Juliet Letters," "The Birds Will Still Be Singing," preceded two heartbreaking tunes from "Painted from Memory," the amazing 1998 album with Burt Bacharach that sounds timeless.
Costello ended the show with "God Give Me Strength" and came back to encore with "I Still Have That Other Girl."
Spending most of the evening vocalizing with a microphone with a cord a la Sinatra, Costello picked up the guitar again for his classic "Alison,"
then closed out with an a cappella take on his Kurt Weill-like "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4" that included a little singalong.
Yet audiences always expect — and get — the utmost from Costello. From pop to punk to rock to classical, he's an artist whose brainy, heartfelt songs survive, and benefit from, being stretched and reinterpreted.
E-mail Leslie Katz at lkatz@angnewspapers.com or call (925) 416-4839.
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http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/0 ... ello_.html
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Elvis Costello and the symphony: Can they play "Pump It Up"?
AEI editor, 01:33 PM in Concerts, Music
By Richard Scheinin, Mercury News
You wait and wait for months. Elvis Costello is coming! Costello_1 With an orchestra!
They're going to play his new symphonic work! The one he recorded with Michael
Tilson Thomas! Plus, they're going to play a bunch of his songs, Elvis and the
San Francisco Symphony TOGETHER!
Well, the concert has come and gone. It happened Monday night at
Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. And as much as you have to
love Elvis for his smile, his smarts, his good cheer and his chutzpah … the way
he's always testing and stretching himself, an admirable thing … the concert
was, in the end, not terrific. Actually, it was pretty underwhelming.
I felt almost guilty not enjoying a concert that almost everyone
else in the sold-out hall clearly was so ready to enjoy. Elvis' fans
love him, and he is easy to love, most obviously because of that voice of his,
which only has ripened through the decades.
You think of the way he stretches his art and then of the way he
stretches his voice … leaning up, up, up into those rubber band-tight high
notes, which he never misses … and suspect there's more than a metaphorical
connection.
Certainly, the man's aim is true. He loves jazz. He loves symphonic music.
Deeply. But do we have to love his public demonstrations of love for those
worlds? I have mixed feelings about this.
One of the first things Costello told the audience Monday was about his last
visit to Davies, when he and his friend Tom Waits attended a performance of
Olivier Messiaen's ""Turangalila'' Symphony. This is a good thing for
Costello's audience to hear; the man is into Messiaen. Costello even told the
audience that it should come back to Davies: Attending symphonic concerts ""is
something you should do all the time,'' he suggested in a non-lecturey way.
But then came the San Francisco Symphony's performance of Costello's
Suite from ""Il Sogno,'' and I'm not sure it offered much of a
gateway to symphonic first-timers.
Costello wrote ""Il Sogno'' (""The Dream'') for an Italian ballet
company's adaptation of Shakespeare's ""A Midsummer Night's Dream.''
The 200-page score was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Tilson Thomas, in 2002, and the performance was issued on the Deutsche
Grammophon label in 2004.
Tilson Thomas coached Costello a bit, helping him to strengthen what he'd
written. But this is Costello's work. And it's a very good recording, about an
hour long, with great atmospherics and real spirit; you can hear
Costello's love of Debussy's refinement and Stravinsky's puckishness. There are
halfway decent jazz solos and lots of good melodies, which feel very Elvis-like
yet somehow different, because of the context, the way they keep rising up out
of the symphonic stew.
Monday's performance was supposed to be of a shortened 45-minute
""Suite'' culled from the larger work; it wound up being a 30-minute reduction
of the reduction, and it wasn't very good. The orchestra was sloppy: cracked
notes in the brass, tepid saxophone solos, rhythmic incohesion, all-around
sleepiness. The strings could have mustered a lot more luster; they played with
little polish or punch.
It didn't sound like the San Francisco Symphony. Whether the problem was a
lack of rehearsal time or a lack of communication between the players and
conductor Alan Broadbent, better known as a jazz pianist, the result was a
snooze of a ""dream.'' (Tilson Thomas, where were you?) In its boiled down and
underperformed condition, the piece didn't seem to offer a lot, either; lots of
riffs and faux jazz and a few decent tunes, but nothing to write home about.
Well, that was the first half of the show.
The second half was better, but not enough better. Costello wore a
tuxedo and, roaming the stage, microphone in hand, came across as very much the
crooner. A natural emcee-banterer, he joked that all he was missing was his
martini.
At times, punching out an emotion-choked high note, he brought Tony Bennett
to mind. He was joined by Steve Nieve, his long-time pianist, and, again, the
orchestra, performing a potpourri of Costello tunes in a variety of full-scale
arrangements, including ones by himself, Bill Frisell and Vince Mendoza.
Here's a problem. I confess to being stuck on Costello's early
records: ""This Year's Model,'' ""My Aim is True,'' ""Get Happy.'' They were
smart, but they still rocked raucously; they were filled with elation. By ""
Imperial Bedroom'' … and that was a long time ago … Costello was getting
ponderous.
And maybe that's what was wrong Monday; the songs and their delivery
were a little ponderous. There was ""Speak Darkly, My Angel,'' an art
song Costello wrote for the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The best thing
about it at the concert was Costello's funny spoken introduction: ""It's about
a woman of a certain age and desperation who finds herself on the Riviera … and
is considering pushing her young lover out the window.''
Likewise, ""She Handed Me a Mirror,'' commissioned by the Royal
Danish Opera in Copenhagen, began with a sing-song melody, evolved into
something oddly contoured with Costello driving up to another high note, and
felt, overall, dirge-like.
Again, the banter preceding the song was best: Inspired by the life of Hans
Christian Andersen, he explained, ""Mirror'' is about ""a misfit man in love
with an unattainable woman.'' Something about the story line, joked Costello
(who is married to the lanky sexpot jazz singer Diana Krall), appealed to him.
He's really a charming guy. But as for the songs, the best ones
backed off from the artsy end of things. ""Veronica,'' with just Costello on
guitar and Nieve on piano, was a pretty good rocker. ""My Flame Burns Blue,''
Costello's setting of Billy Strayhorn's ""Blood Count,'' couldn't miss, because
the tune's too good to mess up. (Mary Fettig had a nice feature on alto sax).
And ""Alison'' … oh, come on! It's from ""My Aim is True.''
But you know what was best? A couple of tunes from ""Painted from Memory,''
Costello's collaboration with Burt Bacharach from a few years back. He sang ""
God Give Me Strength'' and ""I Still Have that Other Girl,'' and their ornate,
suburban soul were the perfect fit for Costello's husky throb. He is a romantic
at heart, and here, finally, was real romance.