Great musicians often have an amazing presence on stage, but this can be with minimal gesture. Their very presence takes complete control of the theatrical space. $ However, it could be argued that there are differences in the way certain cultures approach this question. I recently saw the Kronos quartet in combination with the Ensemble Alim Qasimov from Azerbajan. They were dialoguing musically together, and although the Kronos are into such fusion, nevertheless the emotional expressivity of the Azerbajanis made them look a little stilted. The words of Alim Qasimov are clear on that subject: "The words of these songs are very simple. We give them feelings, we try to infuse them with excitement and tension." Nevertheless, the emotions on the face of Alim look in no way "put-on", They are a necessary part of his performance, which does not "feel" to be the case with Edin & Amira (although, I am quite willing to accept that they mzy well have roots in such a tradition). $ This recording shows the first contacts between Kronos and the Azerbaidjanis: [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHMpmB4olbA&feature=related One very interesting piece was evoking the neighing of a young horse on instrument and voice. However, in spite of the quality of the performance, the Azerbaijani players in no way compromised themselves in catering for Western tastes. The result is that about a quarter of the French audience walked out noisily during their performance in Paris, showing in my opinion, their complete musical ignorance. I am willing to bet that no such walk out would occur with Edin and Amira, but they do seem to be doing their best to "cater"... $ On the other hand, I watched an amazing film of Ravi Shankar dialoguing musically with his daughter, extremely moving, but in spite of his almost mystical involvement in his music, there were no unnecessary emotional affects. [2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG2moqxqIaE&feature=related Regards Anthony ---- Message d'origine ---- >De : "Edward Mast" <nedma...@aol.com> >A : "wikla" <wi...@cs.helsinki.fi> >Objet : [LUTE] Re: Karamazov >Date : 05/12/2010 02:04:33 CET >Copie `a : "Roman Turovsky" <r.turov...@verizon.net>; > "Lutelist" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > >"Just my problem. . .". No, a problem for at least me too. The question of > how much musical performance is theatre, is always to be considered. I > prefer less theatre. > Ned > On Dec 4, 2010, at 5:16 PM, wikla wrote: > > > On Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:23:56 -0500, "Roman Turovsky" > > <r.turov...@verizon.net> wrote: > >> [3]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLoX2TTAig > > > > His strong movements, his gestures while playing, are quite disturbing to > > me. Just my problem, I guess and also admit. It would be easier to me to > > listen to his very musical playing without the video showing his > suffering > > face. I do know that certain amount of theatre of showing that you feel > > deeply is necessary - it is an important part of the show. But to me - my > > problem as I wrote - in this performance the amount of "deep feeling > > gestures" harmed severely getting the message. > > > > Arto > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > [4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > >
-- References 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHMpmB4olbA&feature=related 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG2moqxqIaE&feature=related 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLoX2TTAig 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
