Lazy Sunday Afternoon: Lighten Up

I’ve no problem with serious music being used to enrich film and other art forms, but what tends to grate is when pop musicians get ideas above their station, and start trying to sell me their concept of the ‘classics’ – a handful of horrors that spring to mind are Macca’s Liverpool Oratorio, Deep Purple’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra, and The Nice messing about with Aaron Copland and Mussorgsky.

With budgets being cut across the arts world classical music, stopping short of getting down and dirty, thank God, has had to rethink the ways that they present live music, to win new audiences, without alienating their existing customers; quite a difficult ask.

With only a passing interest in serious music, you must have been living with Homer Simpson at the bottom of the sea, not to have become aware of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and their young conductor Gustavo Dudamel. They exploded into London at the 2007 Proms, and went on to excite listeners around the world with a combination of sass and sophistication but, more important, set in train duplications of ‘El Systema’ that are just now producing a generation of kids who, quite naturally, are playing a musical instrument, and often in a band or an orchestra.

With Riccardo Chailly directing the Amsterdam Concertgebouw at a lunchtime concert, the gamine Portuguese virtuoso Maria Joao Pires was waiting to hear the opening orchestral introduction to a Mozart concerto she was about to play. The music that she heard was Mozart, but not the concerto she expected; she had to lighten-up fast. Her immediate reaction was horror, plain to see in this short clip. But with a little bit of macho bullying from the Italian, and a few moments to compose herself, she miraculously switches to the dark D Minor and executes perfectly….

Whether or not you believe that a Diner in Cape Cod is a suitable venue to unfold Cosi Fan Tutte, or that Figaro will work better in Donald Trump’s Tower, opera is regularly dragged into the dock for spicing-up productions in any way that the latest uber-director sees fit. The results are often insulting, sometimes comical – but just occasionally they hit the button. The 1760 production of Rameau’s Les Paladins was a flop. The 2004 production in the same city, Paris, was a stunning succes d’estime. The producers threw everything at it – nudity, multi-screen video, cross-dressing, and here, after some earlier break-dancing, a ‘body-popping’ sequence that fits hand-in-glove with the complicated story unfolding. The French, don’t you love them?

Not the least enjoyable feature of Nige’s posts, here and at Nige Towers, has been the introduction to painters and paintings that were little known or unknown, often with a helpful explanation of what the pictures mean, and what they mean to him. This short vid contains, I’m sure, a few of everybody’s favourites, in a setting that is less familiar, but designed to raise a smile nevertheless. The music is Vivaldi’s delightful C major Mandolin Concerto.

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About Author Profile: Mahlerman

Mahlerman's life was shaped by his single mother, who never let complete ignorance of a subject get in the way of having strong opinions about it. Facing retirement after a life in what used to be called 'trade', and having a character that consists mainly of defects, he spends his moments of idleness trying to correct them, one by one.

6 thoughts on “Lazy Sunday Afternoon: Lighten Up

  1. maribelslevin@hotmail.com'
    maribel slevin
    January 9, 2011 at 11:28

    In these bleak days for Venezuelans when the autocratic tendencies of her incompetent leader give no hope for the future “El Sistema” stands out as perhaps the only positive policy that emerged from what will soon be regarded as Venezuela’s 1st period of democracy (1958-2007)

    Thank you for the cutting edge editorial.

  2. tobyash@hotmail.com'
    Toby Ash
    January 9, 2011 at 13:42

    Very enjoyable and educational as always. Wonderful seeing all those kids dancing in their seats to the youth orchestra,

  3. Worm
    January 9, 2011 at 18:39

    another fascinating selection Mahlerman, I particularly liked the Rameau body popping – I assume the syncopated ‘beats’ that you can hear are a modern addition? Listening to it like that makes the strings seem very other-wordly & I could almost imagine it morphing into something the aphex twin could come out with

  4. info@shopcurious.com'
    January 9, 2011 at 19:02

    Mahlerman, I so enjoyed this post – for me your best yet. Though, plainly, I’ve been living with ‘Homer Simpson at the bottom of the sea’ (if this is possible without ever having watched the Simpsons?) I did, however, spend many years playing in youth orchestras and this clip conveys the immense sense of joy for all involved. If everyone had the opportunity to play a musical instrument in this communal way, the world would surely be a place of universal love and harmony… (unfortunately with clapping).

    Maria Joao Pires is truly incredible here – more to do with living the music than playing from memory methinks. Amazing. As for the curiously French body popping, it kinda works, non? The mandolin is a really beautiful instrument, of ancient origin, but sadly all too rare these days.

    ‘If paintings could talk’ – get malty onto this immediately…

  5. andrewnixon@blueyonder.co.uk'
    January 10, 2011 at 10:28

    All four are quite remarkable – a real treat from the inimitable Mm.

  6. finalcurtain@gmail.com'
    mahlerman
    January 10, 2011 at 18:30

    Maribel – thanks, for the first political comment on Lazy Sunday.
    Toby – yes, it is rather humbling to see the joy in the shining faces of those kids in Caracas. It is 30 years since I was there, but the energy you see in that short clip was my abiding memory of the country.
    Susan – pleasure to press a few of your buttons (hem, hem) – but a shock to see that you have never seen the Simpsons. My wife has never had a Coke. It’s almost as weird as that. But we are conjoined again on the fiddle – I think it is your instrument, as mine. I did many years in various youth orchestras, and although the playing was pretty variable, the pleasure gained went off the scale, and served as my foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment.

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