Irish Times writers review David Bowie at the Point Teatre and the Moscow Piano Trio at the RDS.
David Bowie
The Point
By Kevin Courtney
Bowie's on sale again and, for two nights in a row, the fans are buying. The Point is stuffed on Saturday night for Bowie's Reality tour, but are we just living out a rock 'n' roll fantasy, or does the Thin White Duke still rule?
Happily, Bowie performed plenty of his classic songs from the 1970s, and some of his better hits from the 1980s, but the reality is that he also played a lot of material from latter-day albums such as Earthling, Hours..., Heathen and his most recent platter, Reality.
If, however, you went to the bar or the bathroom during these songs, then you missed a whole dimension of Dave, not to mention half the gig.
At 56, Bowie is looking lean, trim but still superbly iconic, his skeletal grin beaming down on the Dublin audience as he attempts to greet us as Gaeilge. "Conasatawshin?", he asks, very nearly getting it right. "Gurramahagive!" he cries, hitting the mark this time. Fame gives us a taster of classics to come, but a cover of The Pixies' Cactus packs more of a sting.
China Girl gives guitarists Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard a chance to spar, while The Loneliest Guy lets pianist Mike Garson loose and lets Bowie show some emotion. Under Pressure allows bassist Gail Ann Dorsey to show her vocal prowess, as she handles Freddie Mercury's part with kid gloves - not my favourite Bowie song but definitely a high point of the show.
Sometimes, the old songs didn't fit the new band very well; Ashes To Ashes was a pale ember, while Changes seemed to slip like quicksilver into thin air. Life On Mars, however, was triumphant, Mike Garson caressing the glissandos out of his piano, and the rest of the band jumping in at just the right moment. Loving The Alien was given a new, stripped-down arrangement, but a bad song is still a bad song, no matter how it's played. Heroes started off in a desultory fashion, but quickly came into its own to form a heroic climax.
Visually, Bowie kept it linear, with one wide screen behind the band, and a second screen above the crowd, giving us close-ups of Bowie's bone-structure. He strolled suavely along a raised walkway for Bring Me The Disco King, and jumped around on it for Hallo Spaceboy.
Other unexpected high points included Never Grow Old, with such lines as "There's never gonna be enough drugs/There's never gonna be enough sex"; Slip Away, an ode to oddball children's entertainer Uncle Floyd; and an explosive - and provocative - I'm Afraid Of Americans.
This multi-dimensional show ended with a trilogy of Five Years, Hang On To Yourself, and Ziggy Stardust, all from his seminal album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. What a starman.
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Moscow Piano Trio
RDS, Dublin
By Martin Adams
Mozart: Trio in B flat K502; Ravel: Trio in A minor; Beethoven: Trio in B flat Op 96 (Archduke).
There is something aristocratic about the playing of the Moscow Piano Trio. They seem to have mastered, many years ago, all those things which create an impression of high culture. They can play as passionately as youths; yet they have that polished unanimity which comes from being together for more than 25 years. Saturday's concert was their first in a weekend of chamber music arranged by the RDS, and the first in a six-venue tour.
In the best sense, this was chamber music after the old way. Mozart's Trio in B flat K502 was close to that urbane elegance which was a hallmark of the Amadeus Quartet in the 1950s and '60s - straight, unfussy, and with remarkable control of balance and discourse. Everything sounded so natural that one was hardly aware of the skill and experience which lay behind it.
Ravel's Trio in A minor opened with some of the most ethereal, delicately-coloured playing one is likely to hear from this instrumental combination. Here above all, one was struck by the ability of these musicians to sustain a line, to keep a piece moving in enormous paragraphs while making points of detail.
An inclination for speed on the steady or slow side, was evident in the Ravel and especially in parts of Beethoven's "Archduke" Trio Op.
Yet there was purpose in taking the latter's first three movements in such a leisurely way, with a sense of dignified tradition. When, after an extraordinarily beautiful slow movement we moved into a brisk and determined finale, it became clear. This was Beethoven in the grand romantic manner - the great-hearted humanist who triumphs over adversity. Old fashioned to be sure; but making it work takes serious artistry.
The Moscow Piano Trio tours to Howth on Tuesday, Graiguenamanagh Wednesday, Waterford Thursday, Wexford Friday, Tullynally Castle Saturday.
