A Lot of Cellos in a Cold Room
Apr 10th, 2008 by Alex
I worked a quattrocelli concert the other night. It’s a four-piece cello quartet based out of Germany. Cellists — and most other artists who play while seated — are picky about their seating, particularly the height of the seats. Not having numerous adjustable piano benches, we managed to strap several stacked chairs together with gaff tape, custom-fit for the individual’s preferred height. Not classy, but functional.
They started with Bach. Not good Back either; Air from BMV 1068 makes me want to curl up and nap forever. Fortunately their program livens up with more contemporary pieces. Of particular interest was the inclusion of several movie themes: Lalo Schifrim’s Mission: Impossible, Erich Korngold’s Robin Hood, John Williams’ Imperial March, and Nino Rota’s The Godfather. For their encore, they led the audience to snapping their fingers and proceeded into the theme from The Pink Panther before slipping into the classic 007 theme. All masterfully arranged and performed.
Aside from the occasional acoustic prop, such as an egg shaker strapped to an ankle or a faux lip-based trombone, the cellos were used for all instrumentation. Bowed and plucked seated, played like a guitar, and used as a percussion device. I can’t imagine using a 200-400+ year old cello — that requires its own pricey ticket on international flights — as a percussion device, no matter its heritage or making.
I was slightly irritated by Mr. Dreyer, who didn’t speak a word of English while setting up. He had Mr. Peternek translate his staging and acoustic needs to me. Now I have no problem with artists who don’t speak English, but once on-stage in front of an audience he found his German-accented English words with ease.
The performance itself was received well, though there were lots of words about the temperature from the crowd and the artists. When you don’t control the heat in the building, the only thing you can do is turn on all the stage lighting in attempts to warm the area. That works to a point, until the stage lighting looks gaudy and makes people look washed out.
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Sounds like a cool show. I’m actually kind of jealous.
My only comments regarding the translation bit:
1) If you don’t speak very good english, giving complicated directions like that can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially when you’ve got somebody there who can translate quickly and efficiently
2) If they do these performances often, he probably has a series of comments he has made quite often for the shows. Much easier to say something in another language when you say it over, and over, and over.