Camel Live

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Daniel, great post again.
You give words to what I was thinking about lately. While reading your post,  there were so many times I wanted to react that I seemed to loose track. So I
was thinking about how I could best respond. When reading your post again, I
thought I could centre around three things you said, that for me, are very
closely related and maybe I can use that as a focus. The first is the question
if I like drama, the second your remarks about Beethoven in relation to
Bach, Wagner and Mahler and third about your mentioning of rarely emotional
guitarsolo's on the album Stationary Traveller. 
To start with the latter, I
agree with that, if I listen to the album. But during the concert it is totally
different. Not that I was so much aware of that at the time I heard it, but
seeing the dvd Pressure Points did make that very clear to me. And it is not
that the dvd is even close in giving good camera work, or in focussing on
who is playing or giving beautiful colours, it is not, but what it does show, is
the very intense atmosphere, and for that matter, very emotional guitarsolo's. 
I want to try and get it
all better into words, but one clear example is the track Pressure Point. I
don't know if you have heard it live, so I will try to upload the video at the end of
this post. There is an intro first, and Pressure points itself starts
after about 2 minutes. It is a very extended version, but is so really good. And
it also gives such a good impression of what impact that concert had on me.

Then about if I like drama,
can be centred about Beethoven. Like you, I like Beethoven the most. My
classical music discovery started with Beethoven and it is where it ended more
or less. There is a lot I like from Bach, especially from the Matthew Passion,
like Erbarme Dich or Aus Liebe, are truly amazing. I can more or less understand
how people see his work as brilliant and overall I like hearing his work. From
Mozart I like his Requiem the most, I have listened to that so many times. And
for the rest there is so much, I really like. 
But both the music of Bach
as well as the music of Mozart do not have that same powerful, basic and down to
earth feeling that Beethoven has. And Beethoven has that with about all his work
and that is what I like the most. But also something from his personality, he
just has to throw that in, his music is just who he is, it is his very essence
which he expresses. Well, at least that is the impression he gives me.

But what I somehow miss in
his work is something what I found with the music of Schubert. There is a lot of
Schubert which I do not tend to listen to, but there is some of his work that I
just have to listen to over and over again. One of that is his Ave Maria and
second his Unfinished symphony. And both have a certain quality, a certain
magical tenderness, that I miss with Beethoven. 
Then Wagner and Mahler do
have some really very amazing music. I especially like Mahlers 2th symphony and
some of the preludes of Wagners opera's. Of course there is much, much more,
also a lot that I like, but not so much that I have to listen to it over and
over again.
And this brings me to your
remark about drama, all their work is, (in my very personal opinion) to
pretentious. Pretentious in a way that is searching for a way to move people to
have a certain effect, to create drama. And it is not that I don't like that. At
times I really like that. But at the end it is not what I like the most in
music. And in classical music I most like the combination of Beethoven and Schubert.

And just that combination
of Beethoven and Schubert, of essential powerful expression combined with a sort
of magical tenderness (I will have to go search for some better words to
describe what I mean) is what I feel with the music of Camel. And I find that very much in their concert Pressure Points. 
Of course for a large part
the performance of Lady Fantasy there, which was truly amazing. I was so
surprised to hear some old favourites, because I thought the concert ended with
Long Goodbyes, which in itself was fantastic, and again especially the
guitar there. But I still remember my surprise that when I thought it was over,
just then the best (at that time) had to come, some of the Snow goose and Lady
Fantasy.
But another truly wonderful
guitar piece of that concert is Stationary Traveller itself. Which I find so
truly amazing, it just takes my breath away, every time I hear it. Most of all
seeing it live ofcourse, but also on the album. In fact it would be very hard to
choose between Lady Fantasy, Ice and Stationary Traveller, those are my absolute
favourites at this moment. 
So indeed for the album
itself I would say it are not so many moments of emotional guitarsolo, and it
does not so much have this powerful and dense atmosphere. But the concert does,
and thinking and writing about it now, that is the combination that I like the
most. I just have to try and put it better into words. 

The extended version of Pressure Points, starting after about 2 minutes.

Edited by Anthe - January 27 2009 at 12:22