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Rating: IGUDESMAN AND JOO IN ROME: MUSIC IS A CHILD'S PLAY AND... AN ADULT'S TOO.
Man is 'ludens' said Huizinga in a famous essay [1]. Play is part of man. It is innate and, at the same time, essential for his survival. It is present in every culture, polysemic, differentiated, free, unrestricted and disinterested, not necessary but objective, formative.
It is outside of Time but with its own time, separated from Space but within its own space, not defined by moral judgments yet with its own intrinsic laws and rules, to be established, changed, and recreated, but necessary and shared; a central force in the cognitive development of man and active in the affective domain. Children play to grow, adults to survive: and in the Arts, in music, in everything where men put passion but also attention and concentration, the conducts of motor play, skill, simulation, chance, gambling, and strategy resurface to create pleasure and motivation.
But when shared play combines with irony, with parody that is sometimes purely playful, other times deliberately satirical and with intelligence, when the play is continuously new and creative and deeply involves the spectator who recognizes and relates, when the play is parody and a means of the Surreal, it is no longer just a spring that drives the arts, it becomes Art itself. Aleksej Igudesman and Richard Joo, a violinist and pianist respectively, have become a phenomenon whose YouTube videos are watched by millions. Extraordinary musicians and instrumentalists, versatile and multifaceted actors, they have created a show that, halfway between music and theatre, combines comedy, popular culture, and music itself in an explosive mix. Their great musical skills, virtuosity, beautiful sound, and cantabile on their instruments have merged, with acumen and intelligence, with the communicative skills of their bodies and the expressive voice aimed at tracing the parody of a world they come from, know, and of which they are part.
The idiosyncrasies, the tics, the modus vivendi which is also a way of conceiving life itself, of musicians and all that revolves around them, are the target of their show. And then they mimic pianists for the excess of study hours, memory, gestures, from adjusting the platform to always dealing with shirt sleeves, never satisfied with the sound of their violinist colleagues who are in turn parodied as for the way they tune the violin which becomes the roar of motorbikes, the police siren, bees, snoring, as for the way they study; and then singers unable to sing without making any song 'lyrical', and 'passive' and uncreative orchestral players, perpetually glued to the score; following, arrogant soloists never satisfied with the conditions in which they play or with the instrument, with protagonism mania taken to extremes. Igudesman and Joo respond to all this with a virtuoso and expressive way of playing even when they use blenders and chopsticks on their instruments or sing and dance between laughter, wit, humor, and lots of fun.
Comedy never excessive, somewhat irreverent but never sarcastic and lots of music, transformed, adapted, recreated but always felt, authentically and truly interpreted. Those who know the world of music found a mirror in which, through them and with them, to reflect, recognize or see themselves in some of those traits, look at them and, with laughter, distance themselves. Those who do not belong to that world, despite the numerous parodic subtleties, found in the extraordinary ability of analysis and synthesis that recognizability that allowed anyway for participation, empathy capable of unleashing common laughter, from start to finish, uninterrupted. Creativity and acumen in the colorful and sparkling kaleidoscope of gags and playful jokes, invite reflection.
Music, whether lived or merely observed, acts as a mediator: play, fun, authenticity in expression, possibility of communication and sharing, no loftiness nor arrogance and protagonism. Yet the smallness of Man remains the same and even in it fits as an ineliminable part of human nature. No art is Perfection; in each, Imperfection resides but makes it human. Observe, recognize, ironize, downplay and smile. Play. The secret to being little Great Men.
[1] Huizinga Homo Ludens 1946 Rome
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