Das Musiker- und Komiker-Duo Igudesman & Joo hat entschieden, mit der Revolutionierung der Konzertwelt abzuschliessen. Ein Rückblick und ein Ausblick auf die Coda sollen beim Abschiednehmen helfen.
For those who haven't realised it yet, here it is in all its brutality: Igudesman & Joo will be ending their time together in the coming months. Game over. No more fun. Take a deep breath. And for those who are wondering what it's all about, here's the story of their years-long mission.
Hyung-ki Joo and Aleksey Igudesman met in England when they were still children. While devouring a portion of fish and chips, they realised what they felt called to do:
"Whilst studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School, we both felt that the classical music world took itself far too seriously. Attending a concert is often more like a funeral than a celebration of life. While much of the music is indeed very serious and tragic, all the formalities surrounding classical music don't have to be so serious and elitist. Our dream was to change that."
No sooner said than done. In their stage shows, which they perfected more and more, they combined well-known works of classical music with gestures and rituals of the classical music business as well as quotes from pop culture. And internationally famous musicians regularly joined the duo as guests. For example, there are films circulating on YouTube featuring star pianist Yuja Wang rapping, breakdancing and half-lolling on the piano with Igudesman & Joo. Billy Joel, Hans Zimmer and John Malkovich are other show business greats who have worked with the pair over the course of their careers. Invitations to renowned orchestras worldwide and more than 50 million clicks on YouTube testify to their recipe for success in breaking with the conventions of the classical music world in their very own way.
Igudesman & Joo also have a close relationship with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In June 2018, they presented two world premieres at the Tonhalle Maag, "A Historical and Hysterical Guide to the Orchestra" and "Clash of the Soloists", conducted by Joshua Weilerstein, which were commissioned by the Tonhalle Society Zurich and dedicated to it.
Humour and irony are individual and perhaps a wild mixture of intelligence, anarchy and childlike playfulness. They are strongly influenced by cultural background, upbringing and life experiences. What influenced Igudesman & Joo at a young age?
Hyung-ki Joo is a Brit who looks Korean. "Or the other way round, or both", as he says of himself. He started piano lessons at the age of eight and a quarter and two years later he was offered a place at the aforementioned Yehudi Menuhin School. Joo realised that he was surrounded by geniuses and child prodigies. As a result, he was convinced that he would soon be thrown out of school. This was exacerbated by his small hands - not ideal for a pianist. In the end, however, he not only withstood the pressure, his love of music was even strengthened during his studies.
Joo was regularly teased by Aleksey Igudesman. He also had to cope with a few challenges as a boy. Igudesman was born in Leningrad in 1973 and is of Jewish descent. When he was a young boy, he left the Soviet Union with his family and emigrated to Europe. His father and mentor found a job as a violinist in Bremerhaven. A few years later, when Igudesman was eleven years old, his father died. With the support of his mother - a pianist - the twelve-year-old managed to be accepted at the school of the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. While studying the violin, he read all the plays by George Bernard Shaw, the master of satirical exaggeration. Another playwright who influenced him was the Russian Anton Chekhov.
The tragic-comic, the grotesque and chaos are essential elements in Igudesman & Joo's work. For the duo, it is always important how one looks at the world. And their perspective is a positive one:
"Actually, the world is funny. It just depends on how you look at it. Humour is everywhere, even in the darkest moments. We've always believed that laughter is a cure, and we've made it our mission to emphasise the absurdity in even the most serious things. A missed note, a forgotten phrase - it's all part of the great comedy of life. The trick is to learn to laugh about it, and then the world suddenly feels a little lighter."
And why is this fun coming to an end?
"After 20 years of making fun of Mozart, Beethoven and everyone else, you realise that there are only so many ways to make them funny. To move forward creatively, you have to move into new territory. But don't worry, we'll continue to be active behind the scenes, curating projects and releasing previously unreleased material that we've accumulated over the decades. There will be more laughter and music, just in a different form."
Their last show at the Tonhalle Zurich is entitled "CODA - The Final Nightmare Music" and Igudesman & Joo want to give it their all once again as a duo.
