Nigel Kennedy - 27 Jan 2006 - Opera House concert hall

I enjoyed the music - it was supposed to be a program of six Vivaldi concertos, but there was some Bach thrown in, and I really don't think there is much that can be topped by a good performance of Bach (played by a chamber orchestra complete with a harpsichord and a rather cool Baroque guitar).

However, Nigel Kennedy and his overwhelming ego got in the way for a large part of the night - or am I being a bit cruel? After all, his flamboyant performance seems a rather large part of why people go to see him, and there were many many of his fans last night, as demonstrated by the giggling women in the front row who had their hands kissed many a time by Mr Kennedy himself.

Other hijinks that got on my nerves: the weird fist touching thing he's obviously picked up from watching one too many gangst music videos and thinks is cool and completely overuses; the encouragement for the audience to clap overenthusiastically after every damn movement (ARGH!); the very very drawn out end that extended the concert for another torturous fifteen minutes with his "tribute" to Jimi Hendrix; MORE prolonged clapping, and then more and then...you get the picture.

The music just got lost in that experience, but I did appreciate Vivaldi a little more after the performance, and I seem to be particularly fond of his first movements as a whole, which are very energetic and fast and awesome.