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Classical take on classic Tull...
Ian Anderson without Martin Barre? What's going on? This is the companion to the 2-CD set and it replicates the running order exactly whilst adding bonus interview footage.
The DVD is well filmed and recorded with the use of split screen in places and it probably sounds great in 5.1.
Ian Anderson is perhaps not so animated now than in his heyday but almost instinctively he wants to stand on one leg when playing the flute, and we still love him for it.
Against a fine group of classical players, Anderson cuts muster and must have been pleased with the result. The film is a great souvenir of an event that celebrates Anderson's compositional skills and, as we long suspected, his songs lend themselves effortlessly to a classical treatment.
The set list may seem a little predictable, I'm sure Anderson could have featured more from his recent solo work, but it pleases nevertheless.
The bonus material includes a long interview with the Tull frontman and there are also interviews with some of the key orchestra members and promoter Franz Rau who recalls how he first booked Tull in Germany in the late sixties. Unfortunately the Anderson and collaborator interviews are broken down into segments but only appear as one chapter in the DVD menu which means you can't dip in and out easily.
If you're a Tull fan you'll want this, for others - as with the accompanying CD set - it is a very good orchestral realisation of one of our most enduring rock bands.
****
Review by David Randall
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