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
