Bang On A Can All-Stars at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall – Wednesday October 4th 2006
An excellent concert by six fine musicians from New York. The All-Stars grew out of the Bang On A Can Festival which started in 1987. So this is not a new group by any means but the concert included two European premiers including Manhatta by Michael Nyman (arranged by Andy Keenan) with 1921 film of the same name by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler including the poetry of Walt Whitman.
The concert opened with clarinetist Evan Ziporyn playing Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint. Then the others came on stage to perform ‘I buried Paul’ by Michael Gordon which takes the discordant ending to Strawberry Fields as its starting point.
The second half started with the band playing a set of pieces by Don Byron as accompaniment to more old film footage, this time Ernie Kovacs late 1950’s comedy sketches ‘Eugene’
All very entertaining, what a shame there were not more people there to enjoy it.