UK Theatre Network

It probably says a lot about the tone of last night’s show that Halloween was only briefly mentioned once, by Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. While London Symphony Orchestra’s performance with Antony and the Johnsons (performed in this hall a year ago) was given a bit of levity by their cover of  Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’, there was no such relief this year. Indeed, Antony Heggarty’s triumphant shows with the LSO seem an appropriate benchmark for last night’s, and on balance the feminine crooner’s show surpassed the Grizzly Bear’s.                       

            While Nico Muhly’s arrangements for Antony and the Johnson’s songs was integral to the performance, tonight the orchestra often seemed surplus to requirements as in the inevitable highlight of the set, ‘Two Weeks’. The sense of anticipation as Daniel Rossen moved to the electric organ for the only time all night was tangible, the opening chords got a cheer, Grizzly Bear played a note perfect rendition of the album version all on their own bar some extra piano from Muhly, and the rest of the set was a bit of a come down. Before this, the mellifluous coda of ‘All We Ask’ demonstrated the Bear’s vocal abilities and provided a golden opportunity for memorable orchestration that wasn’t taken at all.  At the premature end of the following song, a slightly flummoxed looking Droste explained ‘…we had an orchestral ending worked out for this song, but you started clapping  too soon… so we stopped.’  I would have doubted him had the audience not done exactly the same thing during the best song of enjoyable/forgettable support act St. Vincent’s set!

            When the orchestra were allowed to open up I thought they frequently sailed a little too close to the wind, taking songs like ‘I Live with You’ into inappropriate ‘James Bond theme’ territory, but these moments of band/orchestra interaction were fleeting. Luke Turner’s embarrassingly gushing Pseuds Corner programme notes identified Muhly’s selfless ‘appreciation’ for Grizzly Bear’s music, but on the grounds of tonight’s performance perhaps he should reconsider any ‘surrender of the ego’ and make his orchestrations more prominent.

The Barbican’s contemporary Music programme continues with Richard Bona Band and Hindi Zahra on Monday 2^nd November, see www.barbican.org.uk for details.