1st Dec. 2016: Venue: Ritz Carlton Bahrain. An Italian cultural offering courtesy of the Italian Embassy. A Paolo Restani recital. The concert was performed in a tent at the hotel grounds and attendance was very reasonable, with several dignatories invited. The maestro is heavy into the rather stiring, often flats of Liszt which is anything but four to the floor. In fact the highly technical elements of Liszt’s music seems to drive Restani, but of course he is also renowned for his massive repertoire of various composers.
Actually, a tent provides remarkable accoustics, but perhaps a little too damped for a single Yamaha piano if care is not taken in the sound set up. Nonetheless, no piano was hurt during the making of this show, even if the Maestro ‘Liszted’ a bit heavy on it at times to get the power out. There was a good appreciative and very quiet (in general) crowd at the Ritz, most of which were expatriate. One cannot quite help assume that it must be a bit of a nightmare for some of these temperamental artists in the age of the mobile phone, performing to a culture that largely has never heard of say Beethoven even. Panning around the room (in the relative darkness), many in the audience still ‘whatsapp’d’ as they absorbed the complexities of the Maestro renditions of Liszt, Rachmaninov, a touch of the more commercial Chopin and even some Verdi.
This video turned out more bootleg than legitimate coverage, since www.whodoeswhat.tv were only there to report on the event thus no technical lighting or sound arrangements made prior. It was decided not to plonk cameras along the front of the stage or indeed on the stage, since one expects that the Masestro was not expecting such an intrusion while performing. Neither did the crew cut in front of the audience. Oddly enough, photographers kept their distance too. It might have been the look from the stool! (Or maybe he’s not opposed to being smothered in limelight and was disappointed, for he took a long break mid performance). Besides, the lighting arrangement was not conducive at all for good video results and everything was pretty much done in the dark with a long lens.
One ridiculous setup scenario was hard to fathom; the stage spot lighting was behind the performer rather than highlighting the subject from the front. This made videoing virtually impossible. Even the DSLR jockeys couldn’t shut down the appature enough to get a clean face. Whoever set that up, should think about a new vocation.
