First,
David Jordan (famous for
his beeeeeeeeautiful review of the Union Chapel gigs!) wrote this
mail about the fabulous foursome also known as The Brodsky Quartet,
to BEP:
Thought you might like to read
this 'E' mail I recieved last night ....
>Dear David,
>I just read your review of our concert on Thursday/Saturday
(oh... I'm the
>first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet) and firstly, thank you
for such
>wonderful comments. I thought you might like to know a couple of
things:
>Bjork decided to have a day off in between the concerts to rest
her voice. A
>very wise choice considering these were her first full length
accoustic gigs.
>We therefore were happy to accept Mr. Costello's gig on the
Friday!
>The songs you didn't recognise were from the 'Juliet Letters'.
The album that
>Elvis made with the quartet in 1993. Bjork loved this album and
wanted to pay
>tribute to her introduction to us by singing a couple of the
songs. ('Who do
>you think you are' - and 'Why' (Daddy's on fire!)). Elvis was at
the concert
>on Thursday and loved what she did with these songs.
>Hope this clears that up! Feel free to e-mail me if you want to
know any more.
>Andrew.
This finally clears up some confusion, on my part, of the two songs
played at
the Union Chapel gig on thursday. Thanks Andrew for pointing this
out.
Then,
the day after, he mailed a follow-up to us at UI! Here it is (mildly
edited):
> All the
arrangements of the songs were done by us without any input from
Bjork
> herself. When we first played live like this with
her (a year ago) there was so little time
> to rehearse that she hadn't even heard some of
them before the concert itself! However
> this year we made sure there was enough time!
> We were sent basic scores and outlines from most of the songs
to which we applied our
> imaginations... some of the outlines were so old
the song titles were different, for
> example 'Hyperballad' we still refer to as
'Cowboy Lemmings'.
> 'All neon like' used to be
called 'April'. (this clears up
THAT mystery song! / Lunargirl)
> The ideas for the set list came from both her and us. For
example, Paul (the viola
> player) really wanted to do 'Downtown'
after the success we had with 'Anyone who had
> a heart' last year.
Bjork readily agreed. She, on the other hand, wanted to cover
> 'Gotham lullaby'. We
didn't need any persuasion!
> The quartet is currently working hard at our own recording
projects. We are recording
> three new albums currently that will be out next
year. These are all of classical
> repertoire, but one features the Swedish singer
Anne-Sophie Von Otter who is widely
> regarded as one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos
ever (who incidently was upset she
> couldn't attend the Bjork gig due to other
commitments). As you can see, we love
> working with world-class singers!
Keep up the good work, Yours, Andrew.
PPS I have recieved a lot of 'E' mails about my review, what nice
people Bjork fans are :)
Regards David Jordan
Loads
of gratitude for sharing this with us, David!
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