Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Nigel Kennedy
From: dgold@basso.actrix.gen.nz (Dale Gold)
Date: 4 Sep 92 23:30:53 PST
Organization: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Quoted from <1992Sep2.174438.15073@spang.Camosun.BC.CA> 
  by dbarker@spang.Camosun.BC.CA (Deryk Barker):
> In article <LANCER.92Aug30105246@wpi.WPI.EDU> 
  lancer@wpi.WPI.EDU (Stephe Lewis Foskett) writes:
>> I just got Nigel Kennedy's Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky & Sibellius Violin
>> Concertos, and they are absolutely brilliant.  Can anyone tell me more
>> about him or his recordings?  

> Kennedy's finest releases are the Elgar Violin concerto (EMI) - the
> finest since Albert Sammons's 1929 version - and the Elgar violin and
> piano music (incl he sonata) with Peter Pettinger: 

I've played all of these (and the other works mentioned here so far) except
the Sibelius & the sonata with him, and agree that the Elgar is the most
memorable concerto I've heard him do.  I found the Brahms to be rough and
boring and thought his cadenzas were awful.  He's also made a
Bartok/Ellington recording which I haven't seen mentioned here, with
Bartok's sonata on one side, and some jazz with John Dankworth's son
playing bass.

> He is about (or maybe already
> has) to give up touring and concentrate more on recording - largely
> non-classical music. 

Yep, that seems to be what he wants to do.  I did a chamber orchestra tour
with him this year.  There were rumours that he wasn't going to make it at
all due to an operation to remove an ugly `violin-growth' from his neck,
and then rumours that he would do the tour, but couldn't hold the violin
properly to play classical music and would do something else.  The lute
player who had been engaged was told he wouldn't be required, and was paid
off.  In fact, I think that the poor sod was just heartily sick of
playing the Four Seasons for a living...

In the end, Nige turned up with a bass guitar player, a percussionist from
a Salsa band in LA, and an acoustic jazz guitar player (Saggat Geery sp?)
who was wonderful.  There was a bit of grumbling from subscribers who had
bought tickets to hear the Four Seasons, and they were given refunds.  Any
leftover tickets were immediately snapped up by a much different and far
younger crowd.

The entire concert was amplified.  We did a couple of Seasons to pacify the
classical crowd, with 11 strings making twice as much sound as the Berlin
Philharmonic.  He did a couple of movements from Bach un-accompanied
sonatas (with lotsa reverb!) and the rest of the program was mostly
original jazz or rock type compositions by himself and the guys in his
band.  There were a couple of antique jazz standards, and something by
Marvin Gaye.  He had a huge rack of effects pedals which, thankfully, were
never used for the classical pieces.  Did I nearly forget to mention the
colored lights and the smoke machine?  :-)  Well, the guy's an entertainer.
He made the usual outrageous remarks, got a big cheer for strolling out for
the 2nd half with a bottle of beer every night, and had the sold-out
audiences screaming for more.

I enjoyed it immensely because it's a very rare experience for a classical
musician to play in such a spontaneous and interactive type of situation
for a huge ecstatic crowd night after night.  It was a pleasure to walk out
the stage door every night into a teeming swarm of nubile young women
bearing gifts (although the looks on their faces when they realised that
the door hadn't opened for *HIM* don't bear further reflection...)  I
managed to survive the endless parties, magnums of fine French Champaigne
and smoked salmon by-the-kilo quite nicely, thank you :-)

Did I leave my integrity at the stage door every night?  I don't think so.
They gets what they pays for, and nobody paid to hear Heifitz.  Maybe he
left his somewhere down the line - there are plenty of young violinists who
are more deserving of adulation, and he knows it.  Maybe his move away from
the normal classical circuit is some sort of act of integrity, since his
real talents don't quite fit into that mold.  On the other hand, maybe it's
an even better way to make lots more money...

I became a local hero by getting my son and some of his friends (who listen
to Suicidal Tendencies and Ministry, and think that Deep Purple is `the
Classics') into rehearsals and scoring a few free tickets for concerts.
Let's face it, he's put a lot of classical recordings into homes that never
would have let the stuff through the door.  My son, who's never taken the
least bit of interest in classical music (in spite of the fact that he was
soloist in Beethoven's 4th piano concerto 2 weeks before he was born!) has
been to several symphony concerts since then, and keeps asking me if
there's anything good coming up.

> ... he
> played Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" with acoustic bass and guitar
> accompaniment. (Well, say what you like, it was infinitely better than
> the appalling Kronos Quartet version).

That's Nige's party piece, and although I heartily agree with the poster
who said that Kennedy is no jazz musician, he plays Purple Haze better than
the Elgar.  It was totally different every night, and I thought he really
captured the spirit of the music.  The first time I heard the Kronos
version was with no warning on the end of a tape a friend had made for me,
and I laughed til I cried to hear a string quartet playing this piece like
a boring string quartet.  As much as I admire the Kronos for most other
things they've done, I think they really missed the point with this one.

PS, in case I sounded too enthusiastic, I wouldn't buy any of his
recordings with the possible exeption of the Elgar. :-)

Cheers,
Dale
--
- dgold@basso.actrix.gen.nz
- Korokoro, New Zealand
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical