CODA - THE FINAL NIGHTMARE MUSIC / Igudesman & Joo / Review

After entertaining concertgoers for some 21 years, the British musical comedy act of Igudesman & Joo has decided to call it a day. The Singapore leg of its farewell tour by Russia-born violinist Aleksey Igudesman and British-Korean pianist Hyung-ki Joo was a two-hour show without intermission. It, however, felt much shorter than that.

The duo reminisced about how they met as 12-year-olds at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where they gave the premiere of Igudesman’s First Violin Sonata, after both had too much to drink. They recreated that scene with a rave and nightmare, probably laying the inspiration for their famous A Little Nightmare Music show.

I&J’s modus operandi is taking the mickey out of all-too-serious classical music. This requires sound knowledge of history, traditions, repertoire and performing styles to parody dead composers and slaughter sacred cows. All this with a knowing and irreverent mix of popular culture.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a particularly susceptible victim. Whoever thought of conflating the opening theme of his Symphony No.40 in G minor with Monty Norman’s bass-heavy James Bond Theme? What about playing the Turkish Rondo in A major (the original is in A minor) and making it sound even more Oriental? That takes technique and not a little virtuosity.

The dour Russian Sergei Rachmaninov was also ripe for ribbing. Fritz Kreisler’s Preghiera (Prayer) is a transcription of the slow movement from Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, which was ripped off in Eric Carmen’s All By Myself. This morph from Rach to Carmen was kind of predictable but not Joo’s singing which turned it into a total weep fest. Breaking up is hard to do.

The advent of YouTube saw I&J’s Rachmaninov Had Big Hands turn into a huge viral hit. The final two chord-laden pages of his Prelude in C sharp minor (Op.3 No.2) were played with an armful of wooden blocks fitted with hammers at the right intervals. This routine never gets tired.

Charles Gounod’s had already turned Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude in C major (The Well Tempered-Clavier) into an Ave Maria with a melodic line. To watch this duo transform that into Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango takes another level of genius.

The concert had to end sometime, and the epic piece to close was I&J’s “original” and extended version of Beethoven’s Fur Elise, a set of variations which quoted more Beethoven (sonatas and symphonies non-exempt), Mozart, Brahms, Franck, Wieniawski and melodies from The Godfather, Addams Family, Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic, X-Files and Johann Pachelbel’s Canon sung with audience participation.

Their encore was an indication of music’s future, a play on Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, with smart selections from Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Michel Legrand’s I Will Wait For You, Joseph Kosma’s Autumn Leaves, Charles Fox’s Killing Me Softly and most poignantly, When I Am Laid In Earth from Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.

Their final witticism was, “Mozart died a poor man, but look at me,” sung to the Beatles’ Let It Be. A standing ovation was the only plausible outcome.