CONCERT REVIEW
Klezmerizing Tanglewood
by Seth Rogovoy(LENOX, Mass., Aug. 1, 1997) -- Tanglewood the concert venue was variously transformed into a synagogue and a dance hall on Thursday night, as Itzhak Perlman and four of the top bands in the genre played a program of Klezmer -- the instrumental celebration music of Eastern European Jews -- called "In the Fiddler's House."
The concert undoubtedly marked a series of firsts for Tanglewood, not the least of which was the sight of hundreds of concertgoers line- dancing their way through the Shed without the ushers scolding them to return to their seats.
Nor is it likely that Perlman, the renowned classical violinist and perennial Tanglewood figure, ever did much singing before at the venue, as he did on Thursday night. (For those who care, he is a bass with a deep, rich, almost gruff tone, infused with humor and personality.)
And while Tanglewood has undoubtedly enjoyed its moments when music brought listeners nearer to God or some other spiritual force, it isn't likely to have experienced many moments of spiritual transcendence of the sort that occurred when Perlman took it to shul when he played the haunting, traditional Jewish prayer, "Shalom Aleichem," in tribute to the victims of the Mahane Yehuda bombing earlier this week, and was joined spontaneously by a choir of thousands singing along in Hebrew.
In a concert filled with such moments of joy and poignancy, Perlman, sitting in alternately with Brave Old World, the Klezmatics, the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, took listeners on a musical voyage through the wide-ranging world of contemporary Klezmer.
The voyage began appropriately with Brave Old World, a quartet that recreates 19th-century Klezmer with the elegance of a chamber ensemble. While on paper Brave Old World's approach might seem closest to Perlman's background in classical music, in practice this was the least effective combination of the evening. Perhaps it was a function of positioning, that Perlman had yet to warm up or find his groove.
Not so with the Klezmatics, the six-piece band that got things off to a rousing start with a drinking song based on a Hungarian gypsy tune. Perlman traded verses with vocalist Lorin Sklamberg, and soon fell right in with the band. He demonstrated chameleon-like agility on violinist Alicia Svigals composition, "Dybbuk Shers," taking the lead, stating the theme, and sounding remarkably like Svigals herself, who boasts an unmistakably distinctive tone. By the end of the group's final tune, "Fisherlid," which started as a slow, sinuous, Middle-Eastern melody and then broke into a syncopated dance tune, Perlman was sawing lines more reminiscent of Zappa than Zukerman.
It was in his set with Andy Statman, however, that Perlman really demonstrated his sincere and abiding love and appreciation for this folk music. More than anyone else on stage that night besides Perlman himself, Statman, who doubled on clarinet and mandolin, boasts a Perlman-like status of virtuoso, and perhaps that is what allowed him more than anyone to challenge Perlman as an equal.
Statman, an accomplished improviser and a man whose very spirit is infused with the Hasidic roots of the music, alternately and playfully teased and cajoled Perlman to respond to phrases in a direct and personal fashion, and Perlman, visibly moved, more than met the challenge.
With the house lights turned up, the 11-piece Klezmer Conservatory Band transformed a concert into a dance party, with a series of tunes taken from the wedding repertoire. Director Hankus Netsky laid claim to the Shed as a spiritual heir to the Klezmer tradition, noting that Tanglewood founder Serge Koussevitzky was descended from a long line of klezmorim and was himself a klezmer.
If the resulting party that ensued was any indication, then Netsky was right -- the spirit of Klezmer runs deep in the veins of Tanglewood. At least it did for one night "in the fiddler's house."
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Aug. 2, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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