Joo & Igudesman give KL audiences a hilarious time

Joo and Igudesman are what Victor Borge was to my father’s generation. With the wonders of the Internet and YouTube, it was simple to view what I was letting myself in for when I wanted to go to the double-bill of their concerts on 16 and 17 November 2009. Looking on their official website (http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com/), I managed to view clips like “A Little Nightmare Music”, “Rachmaninov had Big Hands”, “I will survive”, “Mozart Bond”, “Riverdancing Violinist”, “Alla Molto Turca”, “Being Gidon Kremer”, “Fistful of Dollars” and my then favourite clip – “Where is the Remote?”

All these musical comedy snippets and many more to boot were played at the 2-night bonanza at the DFP. The two shows were played right through from beginning to end without any interval in between. This takes enduring stamina and concentration from both Joo and Igudesman. The shows were spontaneously performed and had the KL audience in fits from beginning to end. This musical comedy material is constantly evolving and as I found out from the duo in a press conference, they set aside time from performing to come up with new skits.

On the first night, they had the musical company of Gidon Kremer and the superb Kremerata Baltica to re-enact “Being Gidon Kremer” – a hilarious narration of Kremer’s musical life. This included Joo interrogating “Kremer” and ensuring that he would win the Paganini competition to make sure that he could survive in this most challenging profession in the performing arts. A sketch that was not seen on the net also put “Kremer” (played by Igudesman) in a recording studio cutting a movement from a Bach Partita (BWV1001 in G minor, 1st movement). Add some vibrato, Joo says. Add reverb. Add some scratchy LP noises to sound like Yehudi Menuhin. Try to play in a historically informed manner. Make the CD cover. The CD cover must have a scantily clad girl in a wet-shirt in the Baltic Sea (A Vanessa Mae marketing gimmick). Kremer’s name on the CD cover must be larger than Bach’s. You get the drift.

The DFP is to be congratulated on bringing this fantastic musical duo to KL. Several years down the road, the DFP should bring them back again to grace our concert hall with their new skits. Great shows and keep up the innovative programming, DFP.