P. D. Q. Bach – Houston, We Have A Problem (Concert)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: B- Concert: B
Peter
Schickele loves music and his love is only matched by his skills to play it,
feature it, play with at and take it into distinctive directions. Like Victor Borge, he knew Classical Music
was not some stillborn, elitist, stuff bore that should build cultural walls
against others. He also knew there were
new places to take that music and during the last counterculture movement, did
scoring for innovative programs like the TV classic Sesame Street and Douglas Trumbull’s 1971 Science Fiction classic Silent Running, reviewed elsewhere on
this site. Then there is his alter ego,
P.D.Q. Bach.
P. D. Q. Bach – Houston, We Have A
Problem (2006) is
a new concert featuring the “oddest” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s children and he
is as eccentric as ever. A classical
counterpart to Firesign Theater, with Schickele as funny and daring as
ever. If anything, his return on his
first DVD could not be better timed.
Breaking recently reestablished standards of conservative stuffiness,
the humor takes on a new irony and even urgency as we are reminded about our
past, Schickele’s underrated legacy and how vital the arts are to all
societies. Schickele is more of an
innovator than he gets credit for and has an extensive library of his own
original works. That includes many
pieces under the P.D.Q. Bach name he plays here in the non-stop 102 minutes of
this concert.
Schickele
is not only a key music talent, but a showman, which he handles with grace and
the audience loves it for good reason.
This is intelligent humor and the right balance of that with talent and
material yields fine results. If you
have never experienced P.D.Q. Bach, get this disc.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is shot on digital video and it does not
look like digital High Definition, but it is clean and does have some good
color. It is also a tad detail-weak and
has a harsh look in parts. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 option is better than the Dolby 2.0 Stereo, with the kind of
expansive orchestration you want in such a program. Too bad Acorn did not use DTS, because that
would have been more involving. Extras
include text interviews on the many sides of Schickele plus Peter Jacoby, a nice
interview with Schickele and two more bonus music segments rounding out this
disc nicely.
- Nicholas Sheffo
