20/6/2000
Meltdown
National Film Theatre, South Bank
Royal Festival Hall
Scott Walker's Meltdown 2000
'Britain's most cutting-edge festival' (Evening Standard). This year's Director is Scott Walker who, since the '60s, has
built a formidable opus moving from mainstream to cult. For Meltdown 2000 he
delivers the exalted company you'd expect from a man whose influence
stretches over four decades.
Scott Walker directs the eighth MELTDOWN festival,
in the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall,
Purcell Room and National Film Theatre. This year's impressive line-up of some of
Walker's favourite artists and performers builds on the
formidable reputation Meltdown holds as "the South
Bank's most ambitious music festival" (Evening
Standard 1998), with a list of superb names from the
worlds of music, film, dance and theatre.
Highlights of the festival include the opening weekend
staging the world premieres of new scores by Scott
Walker and Orbital, performed to by the Richard Alston
Dance Company and the Cholmondeleys (17 & 18
June), concerts by Radiohead (1 July), Blur (2 July),
and Jarvis Cocker (24 June), and three nights of
classic theatre with the first British production of the
acclaimed French director Luc Bondy's En Attendant
Godot (Waiting for Godot) (29 June - 2 July). Meltdown
2000 also hosts the British premiere of a new work by
classical composer Mark Anthony Turnage (23 June),
and the first-ever London performance by Ensemble
Organum, one of Europe's leading early music groups
specialising in pre and para-Gregorian chant (22 June).
There are concerts by Smog (25 June), Jim O'Rourke's
first full British concert (27 June) and Evan Parker (28
June); and a full cinema programme of 14 films at the
National Film Theatre (dates tbc).
The first weekend of Meltdown 2000 opens on 17 & 18
June in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the world
premiere of two new scores by Scott Walker and
Orbital, in a double bill of top British contemporary
dance. Lea Anderson choreographs a new work for
the score by Orbital, performed by the all female
Cholmondeleys dance company. Lea is a
choreographer with a cult following, as well as being
the founder and director of Cholmeleys and the all male
Feathershaughs, she has worked on pop promos,
adverts and films. She choreographed the glam rock
film Velvet Goldmine, teaching Ewen McGregor how
to move like Iggy Pop.
The Richard Alston Dance Company is Britain's
largest independent dance company and has an avid
following. Music plays a vital part in the company's
identity and during the past five years Alston has used
the work of a diverse range of composers including JS
Bach, Benjamin Britten, Hoagy Carmichael,
Jen-Philippe Rameau, Igor Stravinsky and
Johannes Brahms. For Meltdown the company
perform to the world premiere of a new score by Scott
Walker, choreographed by Martin Lawrance who has
danced with the Richard Alston Dance Company since
1995.
Ensemble Organum provide a serene yet intense
evening in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 22 June.
Founded by Marcel Pérès in 1982 at the Abbey of
Senaque, and established at the Foundation
Royaumont near Paris since 1984, Ensemble Organum
has made the revival of the vocal and instrumental art
practiced at different periods of the Middle Ages its
vocation. The Ensemble's repertoire extends from the
earliest source known (Old Roman, Gallican and
Caroligian chant) to the 15th century, and is composed
in large part of music intended for liturgy.
Mark-Anthony Turnage is one of Britain's most
important young classical composers. His music can
be tender, gut-wrenching, driven, dark or lyrical, and his
sources include the Harlem cityscapes of Langston
Hughes, the East End vernacular of Steven Berkoff, the
visceral canvases of Frances Bacon and the jazz of
Miles Davis. For Meltdown 2000 the South Bank
presents the British premiere of Evening Songs on 23
June in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Evening Songs is a
three movement orchestral work lasting 18 minutes,
commissioned by NDR and first performed by the NDR
Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach in
Hamburg on 2 January 2000. All three movements
began life as short piano pieces for Turnage's two sons
and have since been expanded and developed.
Jarvis Cocker appears in the Meltdown festival for the
second year running. A self-proclaimed fan of Scott
Walker, Cocker is preparing a special performance for
Meltdown in the Royal Festival Hall on 24 June.
Smog (alias Bill Callahan) was pioneering the
home-recording boom before lo-fi became the sound to
emulate. The result from the magnificent Julius Caeser
to the latest Knock Knock is a spare, sonic
wonderland, one that can mix cello and banjo, the
hilarious and poignant, the intimate and the profoundly
bizarre. Smog deliver a concert in the Queen Elizabeth
Hall on 25 June.
Chicago born Jim O'Rourke is a composer, performer
and producer and a major presence on the avant-garde
music scene bridging the gap between American and
European experimentalists. He performs in the Queen
Elizabeth Hall on 27 June. O'Rourke has taken on
improvisational jazz, rock noise, electro-acoustic and
ambient music, and collaborated with artists including
Derek Bailey, The Kronos Quartet and Faust. He has
also produced artists including Smog, Stereolab, US
Maple, and John Fahey.
Coinciding with Leo Records 20th Anniversary festival,
Evan Parker, jazz saxophonist extraordinaire appears
in the Purcell Room on 28 June, in an evening of
international young talent from Russia, Switzerland,
France, Germany, Hungary and Britain. The evening
includes appearances by Guyvoronsky/ Petrova Duo
(Russia), Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky (trumpet), Evelyn
Petrova (accordion), John Wolf Brennan (piano), John
Edwards (bass), and John Russell (guitar).
The last three nights of the Meltdown 2000 feature
French theatre-master Luc Bondy's production of
Samuel Beckett's En Attendant Godot (Waiting for
Godot). Luc Bondy is best known in Britain for a
stream of hits at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Produced in French with English surtitles this major
new production has created fervour across Europe and
at last receives its UK premiere in the Queen Elizabeth
Hall from 29 June - 2 July.
Meltdown 2000 reaches an explosive climax with a
weekend of pop-world heavyweights with Radiohead
and Blur playing on 1 & 2 July in the Royal Festival
Hall. Radiohead's concert sold-out in record time, while
Blur appear for the first time in their entire line-up,
supported by the Japanese street band Cicala Muta,
sending Meltdown out with a fitting bang.
Highlights include:
* ELLIOTT SMITH RFH 21 June 7.30pm
He's an Oscar nominee and Grammy Award-winner and no wonder - Elliott
produces some of the most beautiful music alive and tonight he's joined by
special guests Tom McRae and Clearlake.
* ENSEMBLE ORGANUM 'Corsican Chants' QEH 22 June 7.45pm
One of Europe's great ensembles are masters of medieval chant and tonight
celebrate 'Corsican Chant'. Special guest: Munadjat Yulchieva.
* KIM KASHKASHIAN & ROBYN SCHULKOWSKY: Berio & Kurtag + MARK-ANTHONY
TURNAGE: 'Evening Songs' & 'Momentum' QEH 23 June 7.45pm
A magnificent celebration of contemporary classical music, including the
world premiere of Turnage's 'Evening Songs' played by the Harrow Young
Musicians Philharmonic (conductor: Mark Gooding) plus Kashkashian and
Schulkowsky with music from Berio ('Naturale for Viola') and a selection
from Kurtag.
* DOUGLAS GORDON 'Feature Film' RFH 24 June 7.30pm
1996 Turner Prize-winner returns to Hitchcock (after the success of '24 Hour
Psycho') with a dizzying take on Herrmann's music for the master's
'Vertigo'. This is contemporary art at its most audacious. London 35mm
premiere.
* SMOG, A TOUCH OF GLASS (JARVIS COCKER, STEVE MACKEY & ALISDAIR MALLOY) &
FUCKHEAD RFH 25 June 7.30pm
Last few tickets remaining for this night without precedent.
* ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION RFH 27 June 7.30pm
With their multicultural method and street-wise sense, ADF are The Clash's
natural inheritors and produce live performances to change the world.
Special guests: Les Negresses Vertes.
* JIM O'ROURKE QEH 27 June 7.45pm
The US King of lo-fi raises a smile at the darkest moments. Special guest:
Cathal Coughlan.
* EVAN PARKER TRIO PR 28 June 7.30pm
Jazz great in night celebrating Leo Records.
* EN ATTENDANT GODOT (WAITING FOR GODOT) QEH 30 June-2 July 7.45pm
A hit across Europe this outstanding production of Beckett's masterpiece is
directed by French theatre master Luc Bondy whose recent credits include Don
Carlos (with the Royal Opera) and Macbeth (with Scottish Opera).
* RADIOHEAD RFH 1 July 7.30pm
Sold out. Returns only. Special guests: Clinic.
* BLUR RFH 2 July 9pm
Sold out. Returns only. Special guests: Cicala Mvta
* FILM PROGRAMME AT NFT
The National Film Theatre will be screening Scott Walker's favourite films
during Meltdown 2000. Call 020 7928 3232 or http://www.bfi.org.uk/nft for details.
Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell
Room
The Time Out Official Guide to MELTDOWN 2000 is available FREE by calling
020 7921
0971
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