GORDON GILTRAP & FRIENDS At The Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Voiceprint/La Cooka Ratcha LCVP160 (2006)
A dual disc, with the CD side being The Eye Of The Wind, recorded in July 2004 in Huddersfield with The Sheffield Philharmonic. Orchestrated folk music; some decent tunes, plenty of feeling, strings, horns and crashing timpani.
Side 2 is a DVD of the Birmingham performance, similar kind of work; Giltrap has been writing for guitar and orchestra for a while and this stuff works kinda quite well.
Starting with a short interview before the show, he bounds on stage and immediately sets a rapport with the crowd. A couple of acoustic numbers in we get the orchestra going, and the Eye Of The Wind Rhapsody.
Plenty of guests grace the stage with Gordon later, violinists, singers et al, and Rick Wakeman too. All are interviewed too, with Wakeman producing many laughs. Wakeman’s classical piano is probably the highlight of the show, he and Giltrap clearly friends who bounce off each other.
Of very limited appeal but open your mind and it might just become (at least in places) enjoyable.
***
Review by Joe Geesin
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