Festival end

After yesterday's four concerts, today was a terrific climax to the David Lang Festival of Music. Concerts by Bang on a Can in New York quickly caught on and gradually expanded outside the boundaries of the typical two-hour symphony concert. Basically, they got longer and longer, until the Bang on a Can Marathon was born. The real thing in New York can last as long as 12 hours, with different performers taking the stage and the audience coming and going. Today, we were treated to our very own Bang on a Can Marathon (or, more precisely, mini-Marathon). Still, it isn't often that you sit down in the National Concert Hall at 2:30 and don't get out of your seat again until after 6:30 pm. I'd got myself a two-day ticket, and was determined to get my money's worth.
We were treated to music by ten different composers, three American, one Danish, one Australian, the rest Irish, with five different music groups. A great variety of music, some okay some great, some really terrific. Four hours sounded a bit much beforehand, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Making the 'Marathon' even more of a mini one, we were granted a break of an hour and a half before returning to the hall for the final event of the Festival: a climax and a half. Only the stalls were supposed to be open, but the audience overflowed into the side balconies as well, with a turn-out which must have done the organisers' hearts a power of good. Two pieces rounded things off: Brian Eno's Music for Airports (arranged for live performance by the Bang on a Can gang) and Steve Reich's Music for Eighteen Musicians, a seminal work from 1976. Representatives of most of the groups involved in the two days were on stage for the Reich (Bang on a Can All-Stars, our own Crash Ensemble, So Percussion and members of Chamber Choir Ireland). It's a hugely difficult work, but they rose to the occasion wonderfully, we tore the house down afterwards and gave them a standing ovation. What a Festival! A terrific experience, and a credit to everyone involved in the organisation and the performances.

So, I'm back again after a long break. Back-blips (not many, I'm afraid) begin here.