Artist: Renaissance
Album: Live at Carnegie Hall
Label: Vizztone Esoteric Recordings
Release Date: 5.31.19
It looks like it should tick each box on the checklist of classic progressive-rock clichés: a double live album, recorded with a symphony orchestra and choir, full of extensive complex songs with mythological themes and classical quotes, and with not one but two of them taking up an entire LP side each. Would it help to also mention that the band’s biggest epic piece was based on the mythical 1001 Nights folk tale, and the singer would wear elaborate gowns onstage?
Still, Renaissance has always been an oddity in that world. They managed to avoid the obvious clichés even while reaching for the stars, and for all the grandeur, they didn’t tip into bombast. It may seem odd to call them humble in light of a work as sweepingly ambitious as Live at Carnegie Hall, but still, this quintet always put the music foremost and presented it straight-faced without a hint of ego. The members all consider themselves secondary to the music even during one of the proudest moments of their career.
The band’s whole range is on display here: an exuberant “Prologue,” an eloquently elegiac read of “Ocean Gypsy,” a dynamic “Running Hard” full of classical drama, and of course the opus “Song of Scheherazade” in all its orchestral majesty. We also can’t overlook “Ashes Are Burning,” which showcases each player in the course of a spine-tingling extended finale. Annie Haslam’s performance at the mike is probably the most prominent thing to catch the ears—and she’s certainly enchanting to no end throughout—but there’s a lot more packed into such dense music that only comes out with time and patience. From John Tout’s dignified piano/keyboard work to Jon Camp’s subtly clever bass underpinnings, it’s a mosaic of countless well-crafted parts.
This reissue’s extra live disc (taken from a BBC session about a year after the Carnegie shows) misses a few of those parts, since it presents a shorter version of the same set without the orchestra, but devotees will doubtlessly be happy to devour this material in any setting. With a snazzy new photo-and-liners package, a sonic upgrade and a restored live track previously relegated to a vinyl B-side, the full story of Live at Carnegie Hall is as definitive as anyone could ask for.
—Geno Thackara
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