Jean-Michel Jarre and Brian May – what took them so long? Because on the evidence of their Bridge From The Future collaboration last night in the city of Bratislava, Slovakia at the STARMUS Festival, they're a progressive match made in heaven.
STARMUS is the globe’s preeminent gathering uniting science, art, and music, co-founded by May to "inspire the next generation of explorers and regenerate the spirit of discovery, engaging humanity with the biggest issues of our time.”
The free 12 May performance with Jean-Michel Jarre in front of 100,000 people opened the five-day event and was also offered to fans around the globe as a live stream (the YouTube clip below will be available for seven days), and the 76-year-old Queen legend was candid about how challenging the performance was for him in rehearsals.
This is not easy for an old soldier like me
"This me ... in my mind this morning," he wrote on Instagram the day before the final performance with Jarre and the Slovenská Filharmónia. "I've put a lot of passion and work into preparing this little adventure ... but this is not easy for an old soldier like me. In fact it's probably one of the most challenging things I've taken on for a long time.
"I felt very dissatisfied with what I came up with at last night's dress rehearsal - so doing a lot of rethinking today while we all wait for showtime to come around," admitted May. "Why do I spend all these precious days away from home ? Pursuing ... what ? And self-doubt rears its scary head to the point where I wonder who the Hell I think I am.
"These are the kind of thoughts which beset performers, probably especially at my time of life. This is the inner reality. But I'm also conscious I'm incredibly lucky to have an opportunity like this – to work in a completely unfamiliar environment with an extraordinarily talented man with his highly skilled team. Among it all I'm very grateful."
May's care and dedication to getting things right for the fans who attended the show clearly paid off. “It was a blast!" beamed May after the show. "The perfect kick-off for Starmus Earth.”
The two-hour showcase proved the perfect fit for the futurist mindset of STARMUS, with Jarre still pushing the boundaries of the musical experience.
“It’s been 16 years since Brian and I met Jean-Michel in London and proposed to him a collaboration," explained May's STARMUS co-founder Garik Israelian. “We knew that Jean-Michel’s concert involves an ambitious production and never had an opportunity for this. It seems to me that we have been waiting for the Starmus Earth to make it happen. This is the first time STARMUS puts the spotlight on our planet and we want the general public to be more receptive than ever to the big questions of our time, of our planet.
"There is no doubt that kicking off this special edition with a performance as spectacular as Bridge From The Future" will achieve that goal. Jean-Michel Jarre has always brought us music from the future to make us vibrate with the present, and that is the spirit of STARMUS.”
The performance collected workings of Jarre's greatest works with the following setlist:
THE OPENING
EPICA OXYGENE
OXYGENE 2
WEB SPINNER
EQUINOXE 4
EQUINOXE 7
FALLING DOWN
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION PART 2
THE ARCHITECT* (J-M JARRE & E. FROESE)
RENDEZ-VOUS BRATISLAVA
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY BRATISLAVA 2024* (A.DVORAK, ARRANGEMENTS BY J-M-JARRE & B. MAY
EXIT* (J-M JARRE & E. SNOWDEN
AZIMUTH
HERBALIZER
OXYGENE 19
GLORY* (J-M JARRE & A. GONZALEZ(=)
RENDEZ-VOUS 4
STARDUST* (J-M JARRE & A. VAN BUUREN J J D)
BRATISLAVA TIME
May and his Red Special joined for the ambitious New World Symphony that the two forward-thinking musicians arranged for the show. The guitarist summoning soaring and sorrowful ethereal sounds alongside Jarre and the orchestra before a beautiful solo spot for the melody of Largo. It's a reminder of a trailblazer of not just guitar, but how to deliver progressive, genre-melding music for the masses.
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