PLANET EARTH 2
HYDRO Glasgow
Mar 27th 2022
This event came as a total surprise to me. Thanks, if that is the correct word to a friend coming down with Covid, I inherited his two tickets so off we went to experience some of the magical moments from the brilliant TV programme Planet Earth 2. Tonight the stunning visuals were augmented by live music. Not just any music and not just any band! No, the score came from the originators Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea & Jasha Klebe and played by a full philharmonic orchestra with perhaps sixty to seventy musicians.
So it was truly and aural and visual delight. The senior producer from the series introduced the individual segments, giving a bit of background and context, from the TV programmes (sorry I didn’t catch his name). Of course on the broadcast version it was the ever-watchable Sir David Attenborough who kept us engaged and enthralled. So you will have gathered that I enjoyed my outing. Well in part I did however the evening was a strangely unsatisfying one.
The things, which were missing completely, were atmosphere and attachment. This I put squarely on the choice of venue. It was a huge cold (not physically but atmosphere wise), uninviting concrete barn of a place. Our seats were about three-quarters back, slightly off to the side, on the stalls level. Even at that point you were so far away from the stage and screen as to lose contact. Yes you could see and hear well, but it all felt very remote. Goodness knows what it was like in the back rows of the very top tiers. As my wife and I were talking on the return trip we both felt like we would have enjoyed it way more in say the Royal Concert Hall or, even better, curled up on our own couch with the DVD.
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