8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A tribute concert remembering George Harrison by his friends and colleagues.
Starring: Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Dhani Harrison, Paul McCartney, Tom PettyMusic | 100% |
Documentary | 34% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Dutch, Italian
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Please note: this review was based on an advance 'check disc' provided to me by Rhino. Typically check discs are the same as the final retail version, but there may be some differences. I should be getting a retail version of this title as we get nearer to street date and I will update this review if appropriate at that time.
John was the prankster. Paul was the cute one. Ringo was the buffoon. And that left George, the quiet Beatle in the background who seemed to be something of a cipher. Only as the sixties wound down their tumult and discord did audiences suddenly realize still Georgian waters ran deep, deep enough to give us stunning songs like “Something”, "Here Comes the Sun" and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and deep enough to infuse pop music with an Eastern mysticism and thereby imbue a whole generation with a certain meditative ethos that may have invited scorn, but which perhaps helped that generation move beyond the very tumult through which they had just lived. And after The Beatles parted ways, it was George who managed perhaps most successfully to meld a social consciousness with a still very potent musical and lyrical language that saw him slowly emerge from the rather formidable Lennon-McCartney shadows to claim some of the limelight himself. McCartney started out pretty strongly post-Beatles, but soon devolved in the pop pabulum of songs like “Let ‘Em In”, and Lennon often seemed more intent on shocking people than in crafting brilliant pop songs. Ringo was obviously a sort of also-ran in this company (as amiable as he obviously is), so that left George to pick up the pieces and try to bring the sociopolitical consciousness The Beatles had helped to foster in the pop-rock world forward into the 1970’s and beyond. What becomes obvious throughout Concert for George is just how deeply beloved he was by his collaborators and friends, and how lasting his legacy remains.
The Royal Albert Hall, November 29, 2002, the first anniversary of the death of George Harrison.
Concert for George is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The first part of the concert featuring Ravi Shankar's orchestra is noticeably softer than the second half of the concert. The Shankar segment is bathed in an omnipresent orange-red lighting scheme which robs the image of fine detail and casts an overall hazy softness on the image. It actually works toward the dreamlike atmosphere the music itself conjures. Once we get to the more traditionally lit Monty Python and George's Band segments, things improve somewhat, though the overall image is still plagued with softness and a lack of fine detail. Close-ups fare best, as might be expected, with reasonable detail of faces and instruments. Far shots are often murky at best. Colors are very well saturated and fleshtones are accurate. Contrast is fine, and handles the lighting changes very well.
Concert for George features a very beautifully immersive lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (as well as an uncompressed stereo LPCM 2.0 option). This is a track which bristles with life, able to handle the low drone tones of the Shankar segment with ease, but which also doesn't shirk on the higher frequencies later in the concert. Personally the Shankar segment actually showed off the capabilities of the 5.1 surround mix more abundantly than the more traditional "Western" section of the evening. With tables thunking, the quicksilver sitar work, as well as strings, a chorus and other indigenous Indian instruments, the Shankar segment acts as a musical travelogue of sorts and the DTS track invites the listener into the soundscape effortlessly. The George's Band segment also features sterling fidelity, if perhaps a bit less showily than the Shankar segment. Guitars and drums are balanced very well, and the keyboard is nicely separated and cuts through the band mass very well. Voices are very well mixed and immaculately reproduced.
The second disc of this two disc set features the following supplements:
This is one of the most beautifully heartfelt concerts in recent memory and is a fitting memorial to a man who quietly changed the course of pop music. The full concert version gives us more insight into the Indian music which so deeply affected George, and with the raucous Monty Python segment and the wonderful George's Band assortment of Harrison tunes, Concert for George helps to keep Harrison's memory alive. Highly recommended.
25th Anniversary
2009-2010
2004-2013
1987
2012
2008
1981
2016
2011
2012
2005
1978
2015
2007
2007
1980
2013
Bruce Springsteen
2013
2016
The Rolling Stones
2008
1979