Tim Kliphuis Trio Queen's Hall Edinburgh 10th March 2024 Review
Tim Kliphuis Trio were at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, the first date on their new tour and also the launch of their new album 'Pictures at an Exhibition'.
This new album is in part a re-imagining of the original “Pictures at an Exhibition” written in 1874 by Russian composer Modeste Mussorgsky as a musical homage to the exhibited work of his friend, architect and painter Viktor Hartmann. Sadly, by the time that Mussorgsky found time to visit this exhibition, Hartmann had died and this for me always makes the ten works (inspired by the paintings) that he composed originally for piano a powerful and poignant personal tribute from one good friend to another. This work has of course been re-arranged for orchestra and has become one of classical music’s best known works.
Here, Tim Kliphuis (violin), Roy Percy (double bass) and Nigel Clark (guitar) take for their inspiration a selection of the original works from Mussorgsky’s “paintings” including –“Baba Yaga”, “Gnomus”, ”The Old Castle”, “Bydio” and Promenade 1,2 and 3 and add four new works, “The Kiss” (Gustav Klimt), “Starry Night” (Vincent Van Gogh), “Ritz Tower”, (Georgia O’Keefe), and “The Great Wave” (Hokusai) .
The main pictures at our exhibition were on display on a monitor as the trio gave us their own interpretations of them through their distinctive blend of Classical, Jazz and traditional folk music. Opening our exhibition was ”Baba Yaga” the old witch of the forests of Slavic folklore, a terrible or benign figure, depending upon which story you read. As per this picture though the trio have captured that feeling of the terror of something moving in the woods, Baba Yaga and her house on legs. Likewise, “Ritz Tower” by Georgia O’ Keefe gave me that feeling of being in one of these wonderful skyscrapers in the mid-1920s and a band just like this trio playing somewhere in the bar or dancefloor. I have to admit that this picture was a surprise to me as I always associate the art of Georgia O’Keefe with her later works of flowers (often those of the desert). Whatever the picture, everyone was free to have their own musical interpretation of them forming in their minds too.
This concert was split into two very distinct halves, firstly the new work from “Pictures at an Exhibition” and secondly the trio exploring what they do so well, taking the music of some of the great names of the jazz/gypsy jazz world and the classical world and fusing them together. In both halves of this concert though the trio worked fluently as a modern jazz trio with Roy Percy keeping perfect timing throughout the evening and giving all of this work that rhythmic bass that it needed as well as, when required, giving a very under-stated performance of just how good he is at every technique that a great double bass player needs to master.
On guitar, Nigel Clark was superb all evening with a performance that not only displayed his enormous range of skills and techniques on guitar but also just how instinctively he works with Tim and Roy, always there exactly when required and stepping back a little also when required. Tim Kliphuis may be the name heading this trio, but this is obviously a collective of fine musicians on an equal talent basis where no one person is more important or takes any more stage time than the other.
Whether it be a gypsy jazz classic like Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli’s “I Surrender, Dear”, Hoagy Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You”, a fun filled take on Bach’s “The Brandenburg Concertos”, or the music of Richard Strauss, there is always something fresh and new that this trio bring to any music that they choose to play.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This new album is in part a re-imagining of the original “Pictures at an Exhibition” written in 1874 by Russian composer Modeste Mussorgsky as a musical homage to the exhibited work of his friend, architect and painter Viktor Hartmann. Sadly, by the time that Mussorgsky found time to visit this exhibition, Hartmann had died and this for me always makes the ten works (inspired by the paintings) that he composed originally for piano a powerful and poignant personal tribute from one good friend to another. This work has of course been re-arranged for orchestra and has become one of classical music’s best known works.
Here, Tim Kliphuis (violin), Roy Percy (double bass) and Nigel Clark (guitar) take for their inspiration a selection of the original works from Mussorgsky’s “paintings” including –“Baba Yaga”, “Gnomus”, ”The Old Castle”, “Bydio” and Promenade 1,2 and 3 and add four new works, “The Kiss” (Gustav Klimt), “Starry Night” (Vincent Van Gogh), “Ritz Tower”, (Georgia O’Keefe), and “The Great Wave” (Hokusai) .
The main pictures at our exhibition were on display on a monitor as the trio gave us their own interpretations of them through their distinctive blend of Classical, Jazz and traditional folk music. Opening our exhibition was ”Baba Yaga” the old witch of the forests of Slavic folklore, a terrible or benign figure, depending upon which story you read. As per this picture though the trio have captured that feeling of the terror of something moving in the woods, Baba Yaga and her house on legs. Likewise, “Ritz Tower” by Georgia O’ Keefe gave me that feeling of being in one of these wonderful skyscrapers in the mid-1920s and a band just like this trio playing somewhere in the bar or dancefloor. I have to admit that this picture was a surprise to me as I always associate the art of Georgia O’Keefe with her later works of flowers (often those of the desert). Whatever the picture, everyone was free to have their own musical interpretation of them forming in their minds too.
This concert was split into two very distinct halves, firstly the new work from “Pictures at an Exhibition” and secondly the trio exploring what they do so well, taking the music of some of the great names of the jazz/gypsy jazz world and the classical world and fusing them together. In both halves of this concert though the trio worked fluently as a modern jazz trio with Roy Percy keeping perfect timing throughout the evening and giving all of this work that rhythmic bass that it needed as well as, when required, giving a very under-stated performance of just how good he is at every technique that a great double bass player needs to master.
On guitar, Nigel Clark was superb all evening with a performance that not only displayed his enormous range of skills and techniques on guitar but also just how instinctively he works with Tim and Roy, always there exactly when required and stepping back a little also when required. Tim Kliphuis may be the name heading this trio, but this is obviously a collective of fine musicians on an equal talent basis where no one person is more important or takes any more stage time than the other.
Whether it be a gypsy jazz classic like Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli’s “I Surrender, Dear”, Hoagy Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You”, a fun filled take on Bach’s “The Brandenburg Concertos”, or the music of Richard Strauss, there is always something fresh and new that this trio bring to any music that they choose to play.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Please note that unless requested by performers/pr/venues that this website no longer uses the "star rating" system on reviews.