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Rehovot Culture: Weizmann Wix Broadway Musical Show
By Erin israel
"One should not go to a concert featuring Beethoven and come back humming "Copacabana."
Or, at least, one should not admit it. But in a program featuring the world premiere of a modern piece sandwiched in between works by Stravinsky and Beethoven, all bets are off. Why must modern music sound like someone tuning a radio at high speed, or like rush hour? It plays havoc with the musical parts of my brain.
Concert in honor of Maestro Riccardo Muti Prize for Young Conductors
Established by the late Lord Weinstock and the Weizmann Institute of Science
Thursday, November 17 - 20:00, Wix Auditorium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Chamber OrchestraConductor and prize winner: Roy OppenheimProgram:I. Stravinsky – Suites 1 & 2 for chamber orchestraN. Vikinsky – Concerto for accordion and string OrchestraWorld premiere dedicated to Sascha ArgovIntervalL.V. Beethoven – 4th SymphonyAll WIS personnel invited – Entrance free
Thursday night's free concert featured a young orchestra from Jerusalem. Before the modern piece commenced, a girl with an accordion walked onstage, and sat down in the prestigious soloist seat to the conductor's left. As someone with a soft spot for accordions, I waited for an Italian melody or a tango.
It never arrived. The girl with the accordion had been drafted into a modern (?) or postmodern (?) display of noise. J. and I would have gnashed our teeth, along with a majority of the audience, perhaps, except for the fact that Israelis have impeccable Concert Manners. No one ever accidentally applauds between movements. No one's cell phone goes off. Everyone who is not a teenager is dressed to the nines. And most audiences give standing ovations--not once, but twice.
So the thought of even grimacing at the whirl of discordant noises (which made Schoenberg sound like Bach) was out of the question. Like the others, we watched and listened, and then applauded wildly. Then we went home and turned on an Astor Piazzola tango album as an antidote.
However, I am not entirely against music that leaps out of the mainstream. Walking down the alley between Ahad Ha'am and Herzl Street on Thursday afternoon, I heard something I've never heard, here. It sounded like wind chimes, but then I saw people gathered around a man wearing sunglasses, who appeared to be playing a Weber barbeque lid. He was sitting on the edge of a concrete planter, and in front of him were his wares: cds and brochures identifying him as the "PANTAMAN."
Despite the ideas for a new comic-book hero that his name inspired, Pantaman was playing some seriously good music.
Pantaman's instrument really did look like two Weber lids fused together, though, creating two concave surfaces with a ring of dimples (without the wooden Weber handles). The instrument sat in Pantaman's lap, and he played it like a drum, with his hands. It sounded like a softer version of steel drums.
Pantaman, as far as I can tell, represents a new face in Rehovot's street music, which is usually limited to Friday morning's street-corner musicians: two pairs of elderly gentlemen who play the accordion and violin, and the trumpet and the accordion, respectively. These musicians anchor Herzl Street with a variety of all traditional tunes from Eastern Europe; Pantaman, with his vaguely Carribean sound, is off in a breezy sidestreet."
Source: Erin Israel. "Ka-MAH ze o-LEH ma-KOM bah-oo-LAM?" "How much is an orchestra seat?" Rehovot.Blogspot.com [FullText]
"One should not go to a concert featuring Beethoven and come back humming "Copacabana."
Or, at least, one should not admit it. But in a program featuring the world premiere of a modern piece sandwiched in between works by Stravinsky and Beethoven, all bets are off. Why must modern music sound like someone tuning a radio at high speed, or like rush hour? It plays havoc with the musical parts of my brain.
Concert in honor of Maestro Riccardo Muti Prize for Young Conductors
Established by the late Lord Weinstock and the Weizmann Institute of Science
Thursday, November 17 - 20:00, Wix Auditorium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Chamber OrchestraConductor and prize winner: Roy OppenheimProgram:I. Stravinsky – Suites 1 & 2 for chamber orchestraN. Vikinsky – Concerto for accordion and string OrchestraWorld premiere dedicated to Sascha ArgovIntervalL.V. Beethoven – 4th SymphonyAll WIS personnel invited – Entrance free
(Source: Weizmann Institute Calendar of Events)
Thursday night's free concert featured a young orchestra from Jerusalem. Before the modern piece commenced, a girl with an accordion walked onstage, and sat down in the prestigious soloist seat to the conductor's left. As someone with a soft spot for accordions, I waited for an Italian melody or a tango.
It never arrived. The girl with the accordion had been drafted into a modern (?) or postmodern (?) display of noise. J. and I would have gnashed our teeth, along with a majority of the audience, perhaps, except for the fact that Israelis have impeccable Concert Manners. No one ever accidentally applauds between movements. No one's cell phone goes off. Everyone who is not a teenager is dressed to the nines. And most audiences give standing ovations--not once, but twice.
So the thought of even grimacing at the whirl of discordant noises (which made Schoenberg sound like Bach) was out of the question. Like the others, we watched and listened, and then applauded wildly. Then we went home and turned on an Astor Piazzola tango album as an antidote.
However, I am not entirely against music that leaps out of the mainstream. Walking down the alley between Ahad Ha'am and Herzl Street on Thursday afternoon, I heard something I've never heard, here. It sounded like wind chimes, but then I saw people gathered around a man wearing sunglasses, who appeared to be playing a Weber barbeque lid. He was sitting on the edge of a concrete planter, and in front of him were his wares: cds and brochures identifying him as the "PANTAMAN."
Despite the ideas for a new comic-book hero that his name inspired, Pantaman was playing some seriously good music.
Pantaman's instrument really did look like two Weber lids fused together, though, creating two concave surfaces with a ring of dimples (without the wooden Weber handles). The instrument sat in Pantaman's lap, and he played it like a drum, with his hands. It sounded like a softer version of steel drums.
Pantaman, as far as I can tell, represents a new face in Rehovot's street music, which is usually limited to Friday morning's street-corner musicians: two pairs of elderly gentlemen who play the accordion and violin, and the trumpet and the accordion, respectively. These musicians anchor Herzl Street with a variety of all traditional tunes from Eastern Europe; Pantaman, with his vaguely Carribean sound, is off in a breezy sidestreet."
Source: Erin Israel. "Ka-MAH ze o-LEH ma-KOM bah-oo-LAM?" "How much is an orchestra seat?" Rehovot.Blogspot.com [FullText]
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