10 ANNI IN CONCERTO-1988-1998*

In the early Nineties I bought the LP "A wood of tales" (from 1991) after I had read a positive review. I was delighted about the long track "A pyrimid's street" featuring hints from Jethro Tull and an ethnic touch. Since then I follow this fine Italian band that showed a more early Marillion influence on their next albums. This DVD (running time 150 minutes) is a very comprehensive musical view on their progrock carreer spanning the period between 1988 and 1999. You can divide "Malibran 10 anni in concerto" into three parts. The first part contains live recordings from the second half of the Ninities. Remarkable is the powerful, tight and enthousiastic approach by the band, live Malibran is on its best: great shifting moods (from dreamy with flute, twanging guitars and mellow organ to a propulsive rhythm with Eastern inspired flute work) in "Pyramid's street" and classical interplay between flute and guitar and a Ritchie Blackmore-like guitar solo (between classic and heavy metal) in "Prelude". Most of the other live tracks delivers powerful and sensitive guitar soli from the two guitar players (mainly the splendid Jerry Litricio), some nice work on the keyboards from Benny Torrisi, a dynamic and adventurous rhythm-section (especially bass player Angelo Messina) and swirling flute play by Giancarlo Cutuli (often Thijs van Leer inspired). The second parts features Malibran on tv specials, mainly playback, on one moment the flute player starts its solo too early! The final part contains amateur live video shots, a bit bootleg but very worth to watch because it showcases the enthousisastic performances from Malibran on stage featuring the funny stage antics from the fluteplayer with his 'air-playing' on his flute during several guitar soli and at one moment he takes one of the guitarists on his shoulders! One of the highlights is "Le porte del silenzio" (the great titletrack from their second CD), a very compelling but short rendition in the vein of the early Marillion. You can argue about the value of the tv specials and the (bootleg) amateur shots but in my opinion this DVD is worth buying because of the first part (almost an hour) featuring the EXCITING SOUND OF MALIBRAN ON STAGE!

This DVD was originally released in 1999 on VHS format. This review is done based on the VHS that I have had for some years. The track list is exactly the same and there are likely not any new additions to the DVD.

What we find here are live performances, both in concert and in Italian television, and some short interviews (which at least in the VHS are not textured in English). Some of the concert materials are the highlights. In these there are some crazy stage antics particularly courtesy of the flautist/saxophonist Giancarlo Cutuli. He is clearly the showman in the group. It is also these moments that the guitarist Jerry Litrico shines and particularly in tracks like "Prelude" and "On the Lightwaves". People who have heard the studio versions of these tracks know what I'm talking about here. The material is divided between the three studio albums, The Wood of Tales, Le Porte del Silenzio and La Citta Sul Lago, that the band had released before -99 and in addition to these there is one early track called "Mistery" that was not released in the studio albums. So, the music is good but I have to say that it can't be said about the actual film quality. This is about as close to amateur as it can get. It is good as long as you don't expect high quality hi-fi production.

Lastly, I have to say that I disagree with the previous reviewer Erik who mentions that Malibran's music resembles the music that of Marillion. I find this weird because Malibran's music is symphonic prog in its finest form. Not for a moment does the name Marillion come to my mind. In addition, Marillion represents the kind of progressive I dislike whereas in the case of Malibran it is just the opposite. In my opinion you don't have to be worried about this metaphor and can ignore it.

Conclusion: An interesting cross-section of the group's history.