HUNGARIAN HORIZONS - LIVE IN BUDAPEST

I used to watch Steve Hackett with his band in full electric band fashion and never seen the entirely acoustic performance. But this acoustic (not really actually, because there is keyboard as well) concert by three gentlemen: the guitar maestro Steve Hackett, his flautist brother John Hackett and a gentleman who used to be Mr. Hackett sound engineer and programmer who turned to be keyboardist of the Steve Hackett band: Roger Kings. Filmed in Budapest on 26 January 2001, this concert is unlike typical rock concert with head-banging kind of stuffs, rather it's a tidy crowd who seat neatly at their assigned chairs (I notice there is no single chair unoccupied at all) and they never stand-up during the show or encore session. I think, it's like the crowd who attended Pain of salvation BE live. They are so quiet and so discipline in watching the show.

Mr Hackett opens the show with his classical guitar fills for quite sometime followed with the legendary "Horizons" which usually opens the path for "Supper's Ready" in original Genesis album version. It continues with "Gnossienne # 1". What makes me attracted is the performance of "Bourée - Bacchus". In its classical style, I used to listen to Bouree through Jethro Tull version sounded beautifully using flute. This time, Hackett plays Bouree with his acoustic guitar. The guitar part of "Firth Of Fifth" is also performed borrowing its arrangement from The Genesis Revisited version. The other tracks that have been of interest to me are: "Jacuzzi" and "Overnight Sleeper". The combined work of Steve acoustic guitar with John's flute is really excellent. My true musical orgasm arrives when the three gentlemen play Genesis' melodic instrumental from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album: "Hairless Heart". What a melodic composition. The soft keyboard work that has so far characterized the music is now changed significantly through the use of acoustic guitar. It's so stunning. I usually repeat this track many times before I continue watching the DVD. The other attraction point is when the three gentlemen play "Ace of Wands" - my all time favorite track that is performed fully acoustic here.

It's an excellent live acoustic set. All musicians play wonderfully. Steve hackett demonstrates his acoustic guitar skills, John Hackett plays his flute masterfully while Roger Kings play his keyboard softly. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Video review only, I didn't get a CD with mine. Steve Hackett, with few frills. Hackett takes center stage, but his brother John and Roger King are integral to this show. It's a mellow, mostly acoustical affair except for the microphones and keyboards. (aaagh, you've got electronics mixed with my acoustics?!?) MTV Unplugged, eat their dust! Roger's the only one who keeps it from being totally acoustic instrument-wise. But he does beef up the sound with the synths when it's needed.

All mellow with some stuff from the classical musical roots of prog, a few nice bits of Hackett's solo material, a touch of jazz (not really Jazz On A Summer Night is progfolk), and snippets and whole songs from his contributions to Genesis (Horizons and Hairless Heart and Blood On The Rooftops, OH MY!).

The best of acoustic Steve Hackett

If you only want one of Steve Hackett's Classical, acoustic releases (which is all the average Prog fan really needs) I would strongly recommend to get a live release. And comparing the two all acoustic live releases by Steve Hackett that I'm familiar with, this DVD called Hungarian Horizons and the 2CD album There Are Many Sides To The Night, Hungarian Horizons is the most diverse and the overall more satisfying. A major part in the added diversity compared to other Hackett Classical releases is the strong presence of Steve's brother John Hackett and Roger King on flutes and keyboards respectively. Even if I love Steve's acoustic guitar playing, I can find it difficult to sit through a whole album of just that. But with the strong participation of flute and keyboards the sound mostly remains interesting throughout the long show. Roger King and, especially, John Hackett are allowed space to shine on their own and this performance is often that of a trio rather than a solo performance with two backing musicians.

The production vales are high and the performance is excellently filmed and recorded. From a visual standpoint, the three musicians here might not be the greatest of showmen; Steve sitting down for the entire performance wearing his dark sunglasses (he looks really cool!). But there are plenty of close ups on his fingers moving across the fretboard. This surely will delight guitar fans.

The style of music involved in this performance is by no means Prog, but it is nonetheless strongly Prog related due to Steve's decade spanning Rock career and the inclusion of several acoustic versions of classic Genesis, GTR and solo Hackett songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's. Prog fans will certainly recognize the Hackett signature piece Horizons, the eternal solo from Firth Of Fifth (not listed on the box and cleverly incorporated into the Classical Bourée/Bacchus), Hairless Heart from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and the acoustic intro to Blood On The Rooftops. These are some of Hackett's finest Genesis moments and are all excellent choices, here performed instrumentally and acoustically (apart from the keyboards).

Further songs that fans of Steve Hackett's Rock career will recognize are the wonderful intro to Imagining from the underrated GTR album (that band Hackett had together with Steve Howe in the 80's), the sublime Walking Away From Rainbows (written by Steve about walking away from Genesis), a very interesting acoustic version of two songs that originally were progressive Rock songs; Jacuzzi and Overnight Sleeper, as well as Kim, Hands Of The Priestess and Ace Of Wands from Steve's earliest days as a solo recording artist.

In addition there are several original pieces from Steve's Classical guitar albums Bay Of Kings, Momentum and A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as several pieces by Classical composers such as Satie, Vivaldi, Bach and Debussy.

The art work of Hungarian Horizons is similar to that of the Somewhere In South America DVD. While that DVD features Steve's electric show, Hungarian Horizons features his acoustic show. Somewhere In South America is extremely recommended but Hungarian Horizons surely constitutes a nice companion piece to that fantastic DVD. If you are a fan of progressive Rock make sure you get at least one of Steve Hackett's several excellent electric DVDs (the three best ones being Somewhere In South America, Once Above A Time and Tokyo Tapes) before you move on to his Classical career. But if you are interested in the Classical, acoustic side of Steve Hackett's career, Hungarian Horizons is an excellent introduction to this side of Steve Hackett. And if you get this DVD there is really no great need for you to get Hackett's Classical albums Bay Of Kings, Momentum and A Midsummer Night's Dream unless you are a collector or have a strong special interest in Classical music.

I was initially somewhat hesitant to give this DVD four stars mostly due to the fact that it is not really Prog and also that there are a few moments in the middle of the show where I feel that it tends to drag slightly. But the overall high quality of the music, the performance as well as the high production values convinced me - this is an excellent addition to a Prog collection (in addition to at least one of Steve Hackett's Rock DVDs)

Such a good live record, for a remarkable DVD dated 2003 (the live concert was recorded on 2002). It was an important music event perfomed in Hungary and its peculiarity is the combination of classical music (played by means of a tasteful acoustic guitar) along with different features regarding the old symphonic tracks by Genesis (from "The Lamb.." and "Selling England..." Era of the Seventies). Well Steve Hackett performed all those unforgettable tunes with the support of interesting keyboards by Roger King...especially some important composers like Vivaldi, Satie or Giuliani are the classical main covers by S. Hackett at his classical guitar; but you cannot forget other modern tunes like "Jacuzzi" or the melodic and commercial composition by GTR....Obviously I prefer his classical approach here (think of the famous tune "Bourée" by J.S. Bach), but the relaxing mood is often replaced and you can find this way the aggressive style of his solo albums, in a "hot" dialogue with the careful Hungarian listener. For me the most balanced track is "Ace Of Wands", another ever-green and perhaps one of his best performances ever...but of course you won't forget the fantastic guitar solo within "Firth of Fifth" in the version equal to "Genesis revisited", even though I would have appreciated the execution of an immortal song like "Fountain of Salmacis", whose best arrangement is right inside the previous mentioned "Genesis Revisited". Nevermind, the present DVD could be an important "Testament" regarding the long live career of the famous British guitarist.

Recommended!