Igudesman & Joo bring the house down

The utterly uproarious virtuoso violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-Ki Joo were back in Kuala Lumpur with their delightfully new orchestral show "UPBEAT". A full house turned up to watch a virtuoso performance by both these highly feted artists who have played here before in shows like A Little Nightmare Music and BIG Nightmare Music as well as making an appearance with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica since 2009.

Proceedings opened with "An Austrian in America", commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to honour its music director Manfred Honeck. Fighting with each other to give the opening upbeat, Igudesman and Joo took us through an uproarious musical journey of the five-movement pastiche of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Johann Strauss Sr's Radetzky March and Johann Strauss Jr's Wiener Blut as well as popular American tunes like Yankee Doodle Dandy and Oh My Darling Clementine and Stephen Foster's Oh! Susanna.

Igudesman & Joo’s orchestral “Ring in the Classics” NOKIA ringtone symphonic poem commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was yet another memorable item. The familiar NOKIA ring tone that we know so well usually causes serious musicians much anxiety and stress. But the MPO musicians began playing the tune themselves and proceeded to elaborate on that popular melody with snippets of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and Ravel's Bolero thrown in by Igudesman and Joo for good measure.

They even gave a centennial tribute to Leonard Bernstein, which featured a medley that comprised America, Maria and I Feel Pretty from West Side Story. A Wagner-based offering entitled Ride of the Oy Veykyries saw Joo getting married to Igudesman to strains of the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin.

A new Grieg sequence that comprised the doleful Air from the Holberg Suite featured Joo on the piano extemporizing the beautiful slow tune. A more virtuoso offering from Joo utilized the jazzy Presto third movement from Ravel's G major Piano Concerto. Another Ravel offering was that of the virtuosic Tzigane, coruscatingly played by Igudesman on the violin.

Further laughs emanated from the audience when Igudesman initiated the sequence "Give Money for Greece". Audience singing was also encouraged in the "Mozart Will Survive" sequence, which also featured the tune from Pachelbel's Canon in D major.

Throughout the performance, the two were as committed to the same high quality of playing (and singing and dancing) as they were to their comedy. They never lost focus, and the audience was completely drawn in the whole way through as a result. I am sure that Malaysian audiences would love to see this zany duo back in Kuala Lumpur with another show like "And Now Mozart", "Play It Again", "Waltz of the World", "Music in Motion" or "League Of X-traordinary Musicians".