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'James Bond Spectacular' Concert in August 2006

[sub]Live and Let Die - conducted by Nic Raine; 11 August 2006[/sub]

'James Bond Spectacular' Concert Tonight

[sub]Live and Let Die - conducted by Nic Raine[/sub]

Strange, it is called Live and Let Die, yet I do not that song in the line up. Maybe my eyes have gone funny.

Hah, my first post in more than four years.

I'm Back!!!

Nic Raine is WONDERFUL - he conducts new versions of past scores - like some of John Barry's and he is as close to how Barry would have done it as it humanly possible. This man needs to be working on film scores.

Songs again. I don't like these Bond concerts where they play the songs- I want to hear cues.

Not too fond of Raine's arrangements. Can't imagine hearing it live.

I'll be interested to hear what they do with the Moonraker suite.

Pity I'm not in the UK, I quite like Nic Raines conducting!

Be sure to give us a report for those who are attending!

I live near Broadlands, but i'll be on holiday in the US during the concert otherwise i'd get tix. just to echo QWERTY's request to those who do go and see it, we want a full report with pictures!!

Generally his work is excellent (though occasionally it can be reminiscent of a school orchestra). I have his four CD Bond release and I would say that 80-90% of it is great. I would go along to this concert if he planned to elaborate on the chosen music - i.e. choose the ten 'most popular' scores and concentrate on these soundtracks for the evening - say 10-15 minutes on each one.

This post has been edited by I never miss: 31 July 2006 - 23:04

Although, Nik Raine was once, the orchestrator for some of John Barry's Bond scores, he's terrible at conducting.

I've heard enough of his awful arrangements of John Barry and John Williams scores to know that he does NOT do them Justice.

The' City of Prague Orchestra' is very good on the brass, but the string and woodwind are appalling. Not only that, his tempo's are always too slow with absolutely no heart or compassion. It's just played by the 'dots', and nothing more.

If he was performing with a 100 piece orchestra in my garden, I would ask him to 'hiss off'.

Cheers,


Ian

'James Bond Spectacular' Concert Tonight

[sub]Live and Let Die - conducted by Nic Raine[/sub]

Anyone attend?

Obvious not many members went then, which I find odd. I've registered especially so I can give you an "indepth" about it!

(BTW - this is a long ramble, so I understand if no one wants to read it. I've written it kind-of blog style - as I made a few notes at the time, sorry for any typos/grammar errors)



After a somewhat disastrous journey to Southampton, we eventually arrived at Broadlands for the Nic Raine "Live And Let Die" concert featuring the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). This isn’t the first time I’ve seen them, I've seen the BSO once before at the Bournemouth International Centre, doing a film music night - which was pretty damn solid. At that event they played a wide variety of scores one of which was a Bond suite (essentially a mix of Goldfinger and From Russia With Love), so I knew they would be good. Broadlands itself was a lovely setting, perfect for this type of outdoor concert. The seemingly threatening weather had improved somewhat, and although cloudy still, there was now blue sky. The only downer really was that because we arrived late we, we were nowhere near the front. There seemed to be several thousand people spread out with tables/chairs in front of us, obviously a popular concert. Beside either side of the orchestra stage were two big screens to show the orchestra in action, along with various Bond clips and photos/posters. Thankfully, we could still just about see things on the stage also. It is announced that at 8pm, we kick off (30mins after the advertised time, but it allowed us extra time to set ourselves up with food). Then the orchestra arrived and did their tuning. I remember it seeming like quite a small orchestra for Bond themes - possibly between only 40-60 musicians, although perhaps I’m wrong (didn't do a count). At 8pm prompt, it began:

From Russia With Love Suite:
Started with the traditional Barry instrumental credits version. Goose bumps at the opening blasts and the Bond theme at the end. Then mixes into the Zagreb Express music. Always liked this bit in the film, shame it's not on the original soundtrack - but Raine more than does it justice here (and I’m glad he does do justice to some of these otherwise lost unreleased cues). Next they play the romantic cue after the Gypsy camp is destroyed. This was a nice romantic piece with an acoustic guitar. Then it goes into chirpy “Golden Horn” music. Oddity this one, feels more like a track from a Disney movie or something, and not in the film (but on the soundtrack). Nice