Performance
Citizens of Everywhere!
George Square, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
THE FEW who braved the inclemency – and yes, it rained, but it was neither cold nor torrential – witnessed a very special collaboration in George Square, and one that certainly deserved a larger audience. What was striking was how it played to the strengths of everyone involved to make something unique and specific to the city.
Artist Douglas Gordon, he of the 24 hour Psycho and Zidane, had sourced a film of singer and human rights activist Paul Robeson leading the May Day parade from the city centre to Queen’s Park in 1960, which was screened with live commentary in the form of a specially-commissioned narrative poem from Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay. Emotive as the images were, her words were brilliantly synchronised to them, recording the banner of the Springburn Socialist Sunday School, placards demanding Playing Fields not Battlefields, and the guest of honour tipping his hat to well-wishers on the way, as well as building in a wealth of other amusing cross-cultural references like “Sunday in the Park with Paul”.
From there singer Suzanne Bonnar improvised an a capella version of Robeson’s Showboat hit Ol’ Man River, which she would reprise later with orchestral accompaniment, as a bridge to the RSNO playing Alex MacKay’s arrangement of a work Gordon commissioned from rock band Mogwai for an arts installation in Germany, entitled Music for a Forgotten Future: The Singing Mountain.
The geographical tour of Europe continued with the orchestra under conductor Jean-Claude Picard and composers Mendelssohn, Beethoven, MacCunn, Grieg, and Smetana in what was a beautifully constructed programme to launch Glasgow’s hosting – in partnership with Berlin, where Gordon now lives – of the European Championships. For the earlier part of the performance pursuit cycling from the velodrome a few miles to the East played on another screen in the square as a reminder of that link.
One could imagine a day when – regardless of the weather – this concert and its preceding live art work would have been a sensational opening event for Glasgow’s Mayfest festival. As it was, and although the rain will undoubtedly be made the scapegoat by those who commissioned it, this was a criminally undersold event with an attendance that ill-served the talented people who made it.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel