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| | Arts Calendar / December 12 / Concerts |
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19:00 | Gwyn Ashton (Australia) |
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 Gwyn Ashton is a great ambassador for Australian as well as British blues and rock music. "Ashton breathes a vibrant new life into bluesy rock with a bang-up-to-date vicious sting in the tail," - Metal Hammer. "Gwyn's the king of feel and tone," - Robert Plant. Ashton has been hauling his beaten up National steel guitar and '63 Strat around the world for nearly 20 years, opening for top-billing artists such as Van Morrison, Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, Robin Trower and a multitude of other fine musicians, as well as headlining his own concerts from the UK to eastern Europe. He has been captured on film by ZDF TV (Germany), Czech National TV, Bulgarian TV on the Slavi Show and many other European networks at festivals, concerts and television shows across the continent. He has appeared at festivals in Brazil, Mexico and his native homeland of Australia. He has opened for Status Quo at 15 UK major concert venues including London's prestigious Wembley Arena. He has released six albums and one EP, came third place behind Jeff Beck and Gary Moore in a French guitar magazine poll, had two albums simultaeously in the Amazon Top 100 and records and tours with some of the world's leading rock musicians. Hot on the heels of his latest album Radiogram, UK-based Gwyn Ashton says about his 2013's release Fistful of Blues as about his returning to the blues. As Radiogram attests, Ashton's foray into rock rarely steps far from a blues core and, in conjunction with his considerable musical collaborations over his more than thirty year career (he's toured with the likes of BB King, Buddy Guy and Robin Trower as well as playing in the Rory Gallagher tribute Band of Friends), his sound and feel are inextricably linked to a blues heart. Ashton has remained tenaciously fresh in a scene which often rewards the generic or homogenised. His blues is fierce, richly layered, and tenaciously nonderivative. Mixed in New York by Ian Hatton and mastered in LA by Joe Gastwirt Fistful of Blues promises an album sized meal concealed in an EP-sized format. Four tracks of Ashton's angst expressed through his maestro guitar work and a fierce, haunting and raw vocal sound. These tracks are rich, satisfying offerings, not bitesized pieces. More info
Central House of Artists  |
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19:00 | Russian National Orchestra |
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The cycle "Great Instrumental Concertos" presents Russian National Orchestra's concert conducted by Alexander Vedernikov and accompanied by Nikolay Lugansky (piano), one of the world's great interpreters of the piano repertoire. The program includes Tchaikovsky's Suite #3 for string orchestra, Rachmaninov's Concerto #3 for piano and orchestra. The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev and today is widely recognized as one of the world's top orchestras. About its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, "They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure." The RNO is also described as "a living symbol of the best in Russian art" (Miami Herald), "as close to perfect as one could hope for" (Trinity Mirror), and "astoundingly virtuosic" (Glasgow Herald). The first Russian orchestra to perform at the Vatican and in Israel, the RNO maintains an active international tour schedule, appearing throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. The RNO is the founding and resident orchestra of Napa Valley Festival del Sole, and performs at prominent venues such as the Edinburgh, Shanghai and Chopin Festivals, and the BBC Proms. Gramophone magazine called the first RNO CD (1991) "an awe-inspiring experience; should human beings be able to play like this?" and listed it as the best recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique in history. Since then, the orchestra has made more than 80 recordings, principally with Deutsche Grammophon and PentaTone Classics, as well as with other prestigious labels.
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall |
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 Stromae is a Belgian vocalist, songwriter, and producer whose music combines hip-hop flavors with the cool, polished rhythms of house and other varieties of electronic dance music; he's also known for his clean-cut look and trademark bow tie. The dance music sensation Stromae has already captured the European and American music market. Stromae's latest hit, "Papaoutai," swept the French music awards this year and went to the top of the iTunes singles charts in more than a dozen countries. The video has been viewed more than 150 million times. Not bad for a little song about a boy's emptiness growing up without his father, whose title translates as, "Papa, where are you?" Stromae was born Paul van Haver in Brussels on March 12, 1985. Stromae's father was a Rwandan architect who wasn't around much; he left the family when he was young and died in that country's genocide in 1994. The singer was raised, along with four siblings, by their Belgian mother in a working-class Brussels neighborhood and developed an interest in music at an early age. Stromae says he grew up listening to French and American rappers, and was inspired by the Americans' rhythm and flow, but not their vision of life. When he was 11, Van Haver became a student at L'Académie Musicale de Jette, and started playing the drums. His mother sent him to a Jesuit school at 16, after he failed out of the public system. It was a turning point for the artist: he decided to get serious about his life and his music, which he describes as a mix of Congolese rumba, rap, French ballad and electro-pop. The songs are about the world he grew up in. In 2005, he took up rap music, and after briefly performing as Opmaestro, he took the stage name Stromae (an anagram for "Maestro") and launched a short-lived hip-hop combo named Suspicion. By 2007, Stromae was back to working as a solo act, and he recorded his first single, "Juste un Cerveau, un Flow, un Fond et un Mic ..." It was in 2009 that he got his real big break - while working at a Belgian radio station, he created the song "Alors on Dance" using his home recording setup, and the manager of the station was impressed enough with the track to play it on air. Response from listeners was enthusiastic, and Stromae struck a deal with Polygram Records: "Alors on Dance" became a number one hit in Belgium, and went on to repeat that success in a dozen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, and Denmark. With his guttural R's and raw emotion, Stromae has earned comparisons to iconic Belgian singer Jacques Brel - but he seems embarrassed by such talk and uncomfortable with his rising stardom. "I'm just part of the people," he says. "It's all about telling our stories." Stromae says he feels Belgian, though he didn't always feel that way growing up. Today he considers his diverse background an asset. He never aspired to sing for non-French audiences, but when his first song became a hit in Germany, he realized it didn't matter if people understood all the words. "We are all humans, even if you speak Spanish or whatever you speak. That's just - we are humans, and that's really interesting. And I'm sure that we can understand each other even if you don't understand my language." As "Alors on Dance" climbed the charts across Europe and Stromae's videos became a sensation on YouTube, he released his first album, Cheese, in 2010. In August 2010, Stromae's career got a major boost in the United States when Kanye West collaborated with him on a remix of "Alors on Dance", featuring a guest rap from West. More info
Crocus City Hall |
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20:30 | Vivaldi: The Four Seasons |
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"The Four Seasons" and sacred motets by Vivaldi will be performed by the barocco consort Tempo Restauro (artistic director and conductor - Maria Maksimchuk). Soloists: Laureate of international competitions Elena Denisova (violin, Austria), Olga Lutsiv-Ternovskaya (soprano), Natalia Vladimirskaya (mezzo-soprano). The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi is one of the most famous composer's works. The name of the great Italian who created about 550 concertos and several dozens of operas is a synonym for The Four Seasons namely. Four concertos - "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", and "Winter" written in 1725 are the most relevant and often performed at three continents within three centuries.
Roman Catholic Cathedral of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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19:00 | XII Synthetic Snow Festival |
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 Having been conducted in Russia for twelve years now, Synthetic Snow Festival is a large-scale event which brings together the lovers of alternative electronics genre from all over Russia. This year the headliners of the event will be one of the most famous (East) German EBM bands E-Craft; the pioneers in the European EBM and dark-electro scene Tyske Ludder; an Italian band Syrian which combines melodic electropop with intense electronic programming, thumping dance beats and futuristic lyrical themes; a Spanish electronic music project Culture Kultur, working primarily in the EBM and synthpop genres; and two Russian bands - the MatriXX with special electronic program and the famous Russian electro project Arrival. The 12th festival will take place at the two dance halls from 19:00 till morning. E-Craft (Germany) have been representing the original electronic genre internationally for nearly 20 years. Over the years they have developed their own style of EBM - brutally forceful sequences, tough lashing sound waves, grinding modulation, noise-art and lasting melodies that form a perfect combination and highlight the beauty of synthetic sounds. In recent years, E-Craft have managed to build up a broad international fan base by focusing on their special strengths, i.e. live performances. In addition to a UK tour and gigs in Scandinavia, Belgium, France and Mexico, E-Craft have been on several major tours in the USA - the last of which included 35 venues. No other German electro or gothic band has toured America so extensively. Coming up from the wave- and new-romantic scene Tyske Ludder developed their meditations on the predominance of technology in our society very early. Nightmare like visions of the then-raging war in Yugoslavia as well as the recurring military enforcement of the United States' claim for world domination represent the other thematic constant in the work of the German Whore. Through the years their musical model developed from heavy electro-sounds to some kind of ominous dance music somwhere between Industrial and the aroma of a nuclear blast. In a unique melting procedure the band around vocalist Albert-X was again and again able to produce avant-industrial dimensions of sound which very often divided the followers into two enemy camps. At the beginning of our new millennium it has become very calm around Tyske Ludder. Disagreement on the further development of the band's musical blueprint and colliding conflicts of interest made this step necessary. Syrian are Andylab (vocals) and Voyager (keyboards, programming). They have played concerts and festivals all around the world, including Germany, USA, Russia, Holland, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile and of course Italy, and their remix work is very requested. In 2002 they were signed by the USA label "A Different Drum" and their first album, De-Synchronized, was released in 2003. The album made a noticeable splash in the indie electronic scene, and they were licensed to the German label "Infacted Recordings" for Europe in 2004. Culture Kultur are frontman Salva Maine, Josua (programming/producing) and Distortiongirl as live keyboardist. The band was born in 1992 in Malaga, Southern Spain, evolving from a 80's alike EBM with distorted voices to a electropop with energetic beats, melodic synths and complex lyrics boosted by powerful vocals. In 1999 they start a frenetic activity. Manifesto and Reflex are released, composed by previously recorded material. Salva joins the band as permament vocalist and new songs are recorded and published in the DNA Slaves EP, which rapidly reaches position 10 in the DAC (Deutsche Alternative Charts). In this year the band also tours in Europe with Hocico and KIFOTH within the "Tierra Electrica" Tour which was immortalized in the "Tierra Electrica '99" limited edition live CD. Spirit is the long expected return of Culture Kultur, and represents the perfect mix between hard worked melodies, club oriented rhythms, dark cadences and reality inspired lyrics.
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