Nils Frahm = Modern Day Mozart?

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    Nils Frahm = Modern Day Mozart?
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    How long must it have taken to command the respect of a room of 2000 into total silence? Is this how it might have felt watching one of the great symphonists like Tchaikovsky or Mozart? How can every single god damn note hit you so hard? Is that guy sleeping over there?

    These are the questions I asked myself last night sat in my pew watching Nils Frahm play at the Barbican Centre, London. Since stumbling upon Nils a couple of years ago I seem to have just missed each show by the odd day or mile so when I knew I was going to be in London for this date I penciled it firmly into my diary. Spaces, released last year, was one of my records of the year thanks mainly to it’s unique modern take on classical keys with the use of countless loops, echos and crazy synthesizers and having seen a live video of him putting these all into use at one of his shows I just had to witness it in person.

    I wondered whether he might open or close with the momentous Says as it really is about as climatic as it gets so either would have worked fine but he went as on the album and opened with it setting the tone in what went from a totally hushed and bewildered room into one of rapturous applause. I can’t claim to be an aficionado of classical piano but from the looks of the crowd neither were the majority of them. Slightly awkward in speech as I guess most people would be addressing such an utterly humble audience Nils went on to play Spaces practically from beginning to end managing to avoid even a moment of disregard from the faithful. I however had a few to many cold ones prior and had to reluctantly relieve myself to find that I ‘wouldn’t be allowed back in until the end of the piece’. His pieces are rather long. I suppose that’s what happens when it’s your first 'symphony’.

    The show drew to an almighty close after a demanded encore and everyone left shaking their heads in disbelief at this young man’s mastery on that piano. I still really do wonder if he could have kicked it with the elite composers mentioned before if he’d been in that same era. Or who knows, maybe it’s still to come…

    This is almost identical to the show last night if you’ve got a spare hour and fancy having your mind blown.
     

     

    -Stan Raymonde

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    Review,nils frahm
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How long must it have taken to command the respect of a room of 2000 into total silence? Is this how it might have felt watching one of the great symphonists like Tchaikovsky or Mozart? How can every single god damn note hit you so hard? Is that guy sleeping over there?

These are the questions I asked myself last night sat in my pew watching Nils Frahm play at the Barbican Centre, London. Since stumbling upon Nils a couple of years ago I seem to have just missed each show by the odd day or mile so when I knew I was going to be in London for this date I penciled it firmly into my diary. Spaces, released last year, was one of my records of the year thanks mainly to it’s unique modern take on classical keys with the use of countless loops, echos and crazy synthesizers and having seen a live video of him putting these all into use at one of his shows I just had to witness it in person.

I wondered whether he might open or close with the momentous Says as it really is about as climatic as it gets so either would have worked fine but he went as on the album and opened with it setting the tone in what went from a totally hushed and bewildered room into one of rapturous applause. I can’t claim to be an aficionado of classical piano but from the looks of the crowd neither were the majority of them. Slightly awkward in speech as I guess most people would be addressing such an utterly humble audience Nils went on to play Spaces practically from beginning to end managing to avoid even a moment of disregard from the faithful. I however had a few to many cold ones prior and had to reluctantly relieve myself to find that I ‘wouldn’t be allowed back in until the end of the piece’. His pieces are rather long. I suppose that’s what happens when it’s your first 'symphony’.

The show drew to an almighty close after a demanded encore and everyone left shaking their heads in disbelief at this young man’s mastery on that piano. I still really do wonder if he could have kicked it with the elite composers mentioned before if he’d been in that same era. Or who knows, maybe it’s still to come…

This is almost identical to the show last night if you’ve got a spare hour and fancy having your mind blown.

 



 



-Stan Raymonde

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