B ★ O ★ W ★ I ★ E  too

s t a r g a z e - THE DAVID BOWIE PROM 2016

this just in from Big O (of course) and really worth checking out if you missed the concert on the BBC

Bowie Prom 2016

Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK; July 29, 2016. Excellent radio broadcasts.
Cale illustrated everything that is usually so wrong with the mix of pop and orchestral, where all those fantastic instruments simply end up as gilding to a loud band, offering little more than a veneer of sound like a big synthesizer.
Source 1 (1 - 19): BBC Radio 3 > 323kbps 48k HLS aac stream > ffmpeg > aac > Audition > FLAC
Source 2 (20 - 21): BBC 6Music > 323kbps 48k listen again stream > RMC7 > FLV (aac) > Audition > FLAC

The David Bowie Prom [BBC Prom 19, 2CD]

A celebration and reinterpretation of the music of David Bowie with the Berlin-based, genre-defying musicians collective s t a r g a z e and its Artistic Director André de Ridder. They are joined by guest singers and collaborators - including John Cale, Marc Almond, Neil Hannon, Conor O’Brien, Laura Mvula, Paul Buchanan, Jherek Bischoff, Anna Calvi and Amanda Palmer - to re-imagine the Bowie catalogue with fresh settings of classic works. This is the complete concert patched together from two different BBC broadcasts.

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Hazel Sheffield, The Independent:

The BBC went hard on David Bowie’s death (January 10, 2016). BBC 6Music held a day of special broadcasts.  BBC2 changed its scheduling. Plans for the Bowie prom must have got underway not long afterwards. Stargaze, an orchestral collective known for their work with pop artists like Owen Pallett and Villagers, were asked to turn Bowie’s oeuvre into the stuff of proms.

They start standing in the round at the Royal Albert Hall, playing the brooding Warszawa from Low.

Warszawa was conceived by Brian Eno to invoke the desolation of Warsaw at the time of Bowie’s visit in 1973. While the ensemble play, Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy enters the stage as Stargaze segue into Station to Station. Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls stands behind him on backing vocals. Palmer dispels the somber atmosphere after the song.

“The most important thing is that this is not a wake. This is an artful celebration of some of the most beautiful music in the world,” she tells the audience, who applaud from the many corners of the venue.

Stargaze director Andre de Ridder told the BBC he was a bit nervous before the concert, the first prom to be streamed live on BBC Four, Radio 3 and 6Music. “I hope we’re not overwhelmed!”

In the end they are somewhat by John Cale’s Space Oddity, which turns out dirge-like for the addition of the house gospel choir. The nimble arrangements cannot survive the number of people onstage. Amanda Palmer even brings our her baby for After All, a nightmarish fan favourite from The Man Who Sold The World, which despite best efforts becomes funereal.

radiotimes.com:

There was brilliance at work - but the experiment never quite lifted off… Let’s be clear, it was billed as a “reinterpretation of the music of David Bowie” and put together by a mismatch of musicians who loved/respected/wanted to honour the spirit and avant-garde creativity of Bowie. To that extent it might be deemed a success.

telegraph.co.uk:

For the first time in Proms history, a pop star’s work was treated as seriously as any classical composer. The results may not have been an unqualified success but this richly imaginative, bold, thoughtful, daring and emotional night amply demonstrated that Bowie fully deserves to be considered an all-time great from any perspective.

Despite obvious flaws and failed renditions, the Bowie Prom was the most thrilling orchestration of pop I have ever seen because it dared to really reimagine the music.

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Thanks to PsyKies for sharing the show at Dime.

PsyKies noted:

Recorded off air from the live BBC Radio Three broadcast 29th July 2016. Source was the BBC HLS 323kbps 48kHz internet stream. As Radio Three did not broadcast the final two tracks these have been patched in from the BBC 6Music radio broadcast.

Audition was used to edit out most of the announcers (one tiny segment remains), increase levels on main broadcast by 6dB, match levels on patch material, crossfade into patch, track and convert to FLAC/44.1kHz. FLAC tagging done using mp3tag and fingerprints generated using TLH.

Front cover picture posted at radiotimes.com.