We went to the Hollywood Bowl last night for our last KCRW World Festival show of the season—James Blake with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by Thomas Wilkins.  No opening act was listed; as it turned out, the structure of the show was (a) the orchestra coming out to do a few pieces; (b) a few pieces by Blake’s trio on its own; (c) the orchestra joining for several pieces; and (d) Blake’s trio closing out. 

Between (c) and (d) there was a really weird moment when 5 stagehands rolled out the Hollywood Bowl grand piano so Blake could mosey over from his bank of synthesizers, play a really minimal piano-driven song that went on for about 2 minutes, and saunter back to his synths—one of which tbh had an excellent piano patch—while the piano was hauled offstage.  Just because he could, I guess?

At any rate, I generally avoid the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performances because they play the type of pops music that makes me itch all over.  The first part of their set conformed to this mold with a piece that turned out to be Handley’s Anniversary Overture, then a piece from a vintage Hollywood score, and then the piece that apparently inspired that piece.  I felt like I had just ordered a tote bag.

Then Wilkins threw a welcome curveball and ended the orchestra’s set with some bracing modernism.  The last tune was Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, a simply stunning piece of music (the link is not last night’s show, but Kent Nagano conducting the Radio France Philharmonic).

The penultimate tune turned out Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question—the very piece that inspired our HLH black lager of the same name.  Sadly, I was only packing Sunset Dervish and Intonarumori or I would have raised the appropriate glass in tribute.  It was the first time I’ve seen the piece performed live and it was lovely and funny in all the right ways.

For those of you who haven’t heard it, the video I took of last night’s performance is linked below.  I apologize in advance that the trumpeter is out of frame for most of the video.  Unseen trumpeter, unanswered question.