Nyman at War

This evening I caught the third of Michael Nyman's five Mexico concerts, in the garden of the Fonoteca Nacional in Coyoacan. It was free to all so 1,200 people showed up. With Band and Marie Louise Angel on soprano, he performed his recent War Works: Eight Songs with Film. The films were compiled from German, French and American WW1 newsreels, focussing on the poor sods who had to fight (and die in) the war rather than the officers and generals, and there was some pretty grim footage of victims suffering from physical & psychological trauma. The music was, well I have to say it, typical Nyman: brass, strings, electric bass and MN leading from the piano. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure whether it was the visuals or the aurals that won out.