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

 

CODA – THE FINAL NIGHTMARE MUSIC

Igudesman & Joo

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (10 June 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 June 2025 with the title "Music comedy duo call it a day".

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.

Photo: Julia Wesely

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.

Photo: Leslie Theseira

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 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.

Photo: Leslie Theseira

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.

Always mugging for the camera.
Did Igudesman do something to his hair?
Must try that sometime myself!

UPBEAT / Igudesman & Joo / Review

UPBEAT

Igudesman & Joo with the

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (17 November 2018)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 19 November 2018 with the title "Fun with comical and classical mash-ups."

The musical comedy duo of violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo have been delighting audiences, live and on YouTube, for years. Coming across much better in the flesh, their two-hour-long gig was enhanced by the connivance of the excellent and totally sporting Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra.

Musical jokes tend to be a little too sophisticated for casual audiences, more often suited for cued-in listeners than being outrightly hilarious. Igudesman and Joo however found a happy medium by adding a little slapstick to their schtick but stuck to being seriously good musicians.

Whoever thought they could both sing or conduct? They took turns leading the orchestra in An Austrian In America. The 5-movement spiel was to mash up classical tunes by Austrian greats with American standards. The Overture saw Strauss’ Die Fledermaus Overture mixed with Old Folks At Home, Simple Gifts and Yankee Doodle. Schubert Loves America muddied Die Forelle (The Trout) with, well, America.

Oh My Darling Johann Strauss had Wiener Blut bloodied with Clementine, sounding like La Valse gone horribly wrong. And no prizes of guessing what melodies got marching orders in Stars And Radetzky Forever. The audience also got their spot of synchronised clapping.

Speaking of audiences, there was a send-up to their bronchial members in the form of a concerto for coughing violinist. The soloist did not get to play a single note, but his respiratory affliction soon infected the conductor, orchestra and audience, resulting in a ca-cough-phonous conclusion.

“And a piece by Rachmaninov,” announced Igudesman, and that was the entire 1^st movement of the Second Piano Concerto. After its sonorous opening chords, Joo showed that the first few minutes could easily be faked as the orchestra’s tutti soared with the big tune. As it turned out, he could also play the tricky solo bits as well, and fairly convincing too.  

Among the best spoofs was the baiting of Richard Wagner, the vilest anti-Semite among composers. The idea of turning his Ride Of The Valkyries and Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin into a riot of Klezmer and Kalinka was a brilliant riposte to the boor of Bayreuth. At its climax, Igudesman sporting a Darth Vader mask proclaimed, “I am your... bride!”

In the same vein were uproarious orchestrations of that pesky Nokia ringtone (originally a waltz for guitar by Tarrega) in the styles of Mozart, Brahms, Schoenberg and culminating in a battle between conductors where Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Dvorak tussled for the right to conclude the work. Beethoven (his Ninth Symphony) won.

There was even a spot for young Singaporean guitarist Kevin Loh to share the limelight, alongside original compositions by the duo. The fun had to end sometime, and it was to the strains of Zorba The Greek, Sabre Dance and Chariots Of Fire. It should be concluded that Igudesman & Joo are the best comedians among musicians, and the best musicians among comedians.   

  

Darth Voyder sticks it up to Richard Wagner,
"Up yours, goy!"