The speech of angels...: 2012

24 November 2012

Bocchino's trailblazing night out! Concert review by Gabriele B.

On Saturday November 17th, I had the pleasure of attending a Musique Démesurées concert given by the Orchestre d'Auvergne at the Chapelle des Cordeliers in Clermont-Ferrand.

It was a concert of 20^th century and contemporary music in which I could appreciate the musicians’ professionalism. They were able to truly reinvent how to use violins, violas, cellos and double basses...

The Orchestra’s director is the Spaniard Roberto Fores Veses. According to the programme notes, he has worked and studied music in all parts of Europe.

The first of the four pieces was Little Concerto for Strings which is one of the first composed by Englishman Jonathan Harvey.

Then we listened to Blaze, a work by young British composer Benjamin Ellin in which melodies seem to conflict. The effect was rather unique, helped along by accordionist Pascal Contet. This was the world premiere performance and the composer was in the audience.

The third work, Ombres opus 12, was by the Franco-Bulgarian André Boucourechliev. It was a tribute to Beethoven and there were several references to beethoven’s music in the work.

Finally, Claude Vivier’s Zipangu is inspired by Marco Polo’s voyages and by Japan (which was called “Zipangu” in the 15^th century).

I was a little sceptical about this kind of music before going to the concert because I thought it was more for people who really know about it. However, in the end, I actually had rather a good time, out-of-the-ordinary at least!

26 July 2012

There's only One Direction! By Mathilde

Have you heard about the latest music phenomenon? It’s a British boys' band know all over the world. It is composed of: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.

At the beginning of the year, One Direction began to be know thanks to their song “What Makes You Beautiful?”. Every girl aged 10 to 16 dreams about these five boys who sing about inner beauty and feelings. Girls are crazy about 1D and contribute to a blog and a page on facebook. Some even go to see the house of their favourite band member!

One Direction is a band really close to its fans. All members have a Twitter account and tweet almost every day. All over the world girls and boys can talk to their idols!

Now I will present you each member of the band: Harry Styles is 18, the youngest member. Zayn Malik is 19 and is the girls' favourite. Louis Tomlinson is 20 and he’s the joker of the band. Liam is 19 and he’s calm and reasonable. And Niall is 19 and he is the little boy of the band and also the only Irishman.

One Direction is a boys band which is becoming big in the music world because all the guys are from X-Factor, the Music TV show. People sometimes think that their voices are not real. In a world where the techniques of synthesizing voice and music is ubiquitous, it will take years for One Direction to prove they are not just a passing fad.

During my trip to Portland I was astounded by the massive following this band has there. When will they become better known here?!