Skip on two years to this year’s MIF and it has grown. This year Manchester’s brief of commissioned work has seen some of the most exciting events I have ever seen. Fact. Throughout two weeks I was continually inspired by every event I went to, be it seeing pioneers who did their fair bit in inventing most pop music, through to seeing local music students given a chance to showcase their talent on a big stage. MIF made me proud to call this city home, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
The Festival opened with Kraftwerk and Steve Reich playing at the Veledrome, which to my eyes and ears was a stunning way to kick things off. Steve Reich is easily one of my favourite composers, and the chance to see a new piece doesn’t come along all that often. 2x5 performed by the excellent Bang On A Can was excellent. Seeing the man himself signing autographs afterwards was as exciting as seeing a pop star, and this was just the ‘support.’
Kraftwerk have been one of my favourite acts for years. I have hated myself a little bit for missing their show at the Apollo a few years back, but this was well worth the wait. They opened with The Man Machine. Opened with it! Amazing. What came next was a set of hits, including Home Computer. Autobahn, The Model and Trans-Europe Express. However, most people’s highlight of the first half came as Tour De France moved into Tour De France 2003 and Team GB moved out from behind the stage to circle the track. Saying the atmosphere was electric doesn’t even come close, though I would like to point out that whilst the cycling was all well and good – I was still more bothered about the fact Kraftwerk were on a stage just over there, playing Tour De France.
Following a brief interlude of the robots playing The Robots, the much lauded 3D show started – for those who has got hold of the glasses on the way in. I didn’t, but a lovely chap stood in front of me felt that it was too good to miss so kept offering a glimpse to me. That guy was a hero, as the visuals were just as stunning as the music. The highlights of this second set were definitely Computer World, Aerodynamik and the big finish of Musique Non Stop. Utterly incredible and inspiring, and this was just day one of the Festival.
My next MIF stop was for a lunchtime recital in the Zaha Hadid Architects designed Concert Hall in the Manchester Art Gallery. I went to this with my sister, who is a classically trained musician, and could express just how good the space is far better than me. She told me that the flow and curves of the hall were a perfect visual representation of Bach’s music, and I’m not going to argue with that judgement. Across the Festival I managed to see Peter Moore’s trombone and Stephanie Oade’s cello recitals, both of which were awe-inspiring performances by great musicians.
Jeremy Deller’s Procession probably summed MIF up best in retrospect. Taking the traditional idea of a procession to bring the local community, Deller brought together Rose Queen’s and a chip shop, mobile libraries and marching bands. This was a great representation of what Greater Manchester is about, which was seen best by the organic way that the crowd joined the back of the procession once it finished and followed it down Deansgate. This was a city brought together, proud of itself. Only the self-confident nature of Manchester’s communal attitude could pull something like this off.
However, the highlight of MIF was the performance which left me in tears of joy for the best part of two hours. Elbow have always been a band that mean the world to me, but this was something special. Elbow and The Hallé was always going to special, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how perfectly Joe Duddell would put together the orchestration for this show. Elbow are a band well suited to working with an expanded sound, given the deep complexities to their music. This couldn’t have prepared me for just how perfectly this collaboration would be. Station Approach is always a great opening, but this time it wasn’t just five men who were coming back to Manchester – they had possibly the most famous cultural icon of the city playing alongside them.
Which is what this was – Elbow AND the Hallé; not Elbow with. This wasn’t a band playing songs with an orchestral support; here we had the two working together to achieve something truly beautiful. Mirrorball still stands up as one of the strongest tracks on Seldom Seen Kid, and was deeper than ever before. Switching Off elicited my first water works of the evening, with Guy’s love story becoming something special with such soaring harmonies interplaying around it. Though it wasn’t just in the Bridgewater Hall that Elbow were pulling on the heartstrings, as Manchester came together once again over MIF – this time at Castlefield for a big screen relay of the concert. Again, this grand public sharing of cultural events will be an enduring memory of the Festival.
Into the second half of the concert and the ante was well and truly upped. The Hallé Youth Choir begin with a reworked Grace Under Pressure before the Orchestra move into Starlings. From here on in the building of emotion became more than a bit too much for me as the mood shifted for Red into Scattered Black and Whites into Newborn into Great Expectations. Four songs that break and rebuild my heart on record, but left me weeping as a newborn such was the sheer beauty of the music being made. Fittingly the evening closed with ‘the hit’ and the band, orchestra, choir and Duddell himself all fully deserved the 10 minute standing ovation they received. I have never been as lost for words as at the end of this concert.
In fact, being lost for words is exactly hoe MIF left me after each experience. Be it eating an amazing platter at the Festival Pavilion or any of the events above, I continually couldn’t express what I was feeling afterwards. That is why it has taken two weeks to even get close to putting something together, which still doesn’t fully explain just how much the Festival achieved. Manchester International Festival left me so so proud of this city, and for that everyone involved should be bloody proud of themselves. Here’s to 2011.
