London Philharmonic Orchestra 4 March 2020 Igudesman & Joo concert programme

IGUDESMAN & JOO

CLASH OF THE SOLOISTS | BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL | WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2020 THOMAS CARROLL conductor

PROGRAMME

Tonight’s concert is dedicated to our hero and friend, Terry Jones.

FIRST HALF: BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC From Mozart With Love (Mozart/Monty Norman arr. Igudesman & Joo) Alla Molto Turca (Mozart arr. Igudesman & Joo) Rachmaninoff By Himself (Rachmaninoff/Eric Carmen arr. Joo) A Very Blue Danube (J Strauss II arr. Schulz-Evler & Igudesman) Uruguay (Aleksey Igudesman) Borat Suite (Erran Baron Cohen) Practice Time (Trad. arr. Igudesman & Joo) INTERVAL

SECOND HALF: CLASH OF THE SOLOISTS FEATURING: Thomas Carroll

Lucy Landymore Dave Marks Marzi Nyman Viviana-Zarah Baudis and Special Guest

Conductor, Referee, Ringmaster, Cello, Piano, and other amazing talents Drum and Percussion Soloist Electric Bass Soloist Electric Guitar Soloist Round Girl and Virtuoso Pianist Erran Baron Cohen

BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC When Igudesman & Joo perform with a symphony orchestra, the musical nightmares take on epic proportions! BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC boasts uproarious sketches tailor-made for a symphony orchestra, drawing everyone into their act, from the first violinist to the last percussionist. BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC is the kind of show where the musicians on stage have at least as much fun as the audience. Igudesman acts as Latin-American charmer while the orchestra effortlessly changes from ballads to groovy salsa rhythms, providing the base for a virtuous improvised violin solo. Joo teaches the audience and his fellow musicians on stage how to play Johann Strauss’s ‘Blue Danube’ in order to be successful in classical music. What’s more, you will have the added opportunity of hearing Igudesman and Joo perform as soloists, both in well-known concertos and in their own orchestral works. Igudesman & Joo are always too BIG for any stage, but now picture the duo in Wonderland after eating that cake which makes you grow … A scary thought? There you have it: BIG NIGHTMARE MUSIC!

CLASH OF THE SOLOISTS We live in a world where millions of people will walk past a concert hall and only a fraction will step inside. Interestingly, thousands will gather at Wrestlemania. Igudesman & Joo have finally found common ground between these two, seemingly opposite, spectator sports. Clementi had to contend with Mozart’s ingenuity, Beethoven blew Steibelt out of Vienna, and Handel sparred Scarlatti in a joust of fingers (ending in a draw where Handel took the honour for organ mastery – the instrument, not his liver – and Scarlatti reigned harpsichord supreme). Now, Igudesman & Joo prepare themselves to go head-to-head and put an end to the bull – for good. In the right corner we have Korean/Japanese/ Chinese piano prodigy Whay-Tsu Fast and in the left, Russian/American/Jewish/German/ Spanish-speaking violin virtuoso Sergey Amadeus Showoff – but, in the feud as ancient as time itself to determine the superior instrument, who will emerge triumphant? In this savage duel between violin and piano, anything and everything goes – whether bribery or axes in the piano and even an evil maestro in disguise. Forget gladiators – this is blasphemy, this is madness, this is Igudesman & Joo! CLASH OF THE SOLOISTS was commissioned by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra to commemorate its 150th anniversary. The Orchestra gave the world premiere performance with conductor, referee, and Maestro of Ceremonies Joshua Weilerstein.

THOMAS CARROLL: CONDUCTOR Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and exciting musicianship, Thomas Carroll enjoys a distinguished and varied career as a cellist and, more recently, as a conductor.

Since conducting his debut performance at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2006, he has gone on to work with orchestras in the UK and abroad. This season saw his conducting debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Philharmonia and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Turkey, as well as a return to the Brighton Philharmonic. Since 2012 Thomas has been Artistic Director of the Orpheus Sinfonia. As a concerto soloist he has performed with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and with orchestras abroad including the Melbourne Symphony, Vienna Chamber and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras. Thomas is a Professor of Cello at the Hochschule in Cologne.

IGUDESMAN & JOO Millions of YouTube viewers can’t be wrong. Well, they can, but in this case they aren’t.

On the contrary, with more than 45 million clicks, they’ve turned the inspired lunacy of musicians Igudesman & Joo into an internet and international sensation. In their unique and hilarious theatrical shows, Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo combine humour, classical music and allusions to pop culture. They’ve performed with some of the world’s most famous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic, the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, to name but a few. Their infectious zaniness and virtuosity have also inspired millions of college and high-school students, bringing a younger and wider audience to classical music.

Aleksey and Hyung-ki met at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where they became friends over a portion of fish and chips. In 2004 they began to create their ground-breaking shows.

Since then, many of the world’s most renowned musicians have asked to be part of their musical mayhem, including Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer, Misha Maisky, Viktoria Mullova, Julian Rachlin and Yuja Wang. The two have also teamed up with John Malkovich, on the CD album ‘You Just Have to Laugh’ and ‘The Music Critic’, as well as former James Bond, Sir Roger Moore, with whom the duo has collaborated on several occasions for UNICEF. As composers, Igudesman & Joo have collectively released over 50 publications with Universal Edition and received commissions from various orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Düsseldorf Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, New York Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Igudesman & Joo are also entrepreneurs. They founded ‘Music Traveler’ – a platform and mobile app which enables musicians to book rehearsal rooms around the world.

In addition to their own productions, the duo appear in numerous films including ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Classical Music’, ‘Pianomania’ and the award-winning ‘Noseland’. In 2020, in honour of the Year of Beethoven, Igudesman & Joo will present two new programmes: AND NOW BEETHOVEN as a duo, and an orchestral show, BEETHOVEN’S NIGHTMARE, a co-commission by the Oslo Philharmonic, WDR Köln, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and NDR Radiophilharmonie. The world premiere took place in Oslo with further shows in Bonn, Hannover, and Istanbul.

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Images © Julia Wesely

Aleksey Igudesman plays with a bow made by the Boston-based bowmaker Benoit Roland, and on a Santo Seraphin violin from the year 1717, which is kindly loaned to him by Erste Bank.

Aleksey Igudesman plays on handmade strings by Thomastik Infeld. Hyung-ki Joo is a Steinway Artist.

Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo wear clothing by CLEOFE FINATI – Haute Couture 100% made in Italy. Igudesman & Joo are represented in North America, the UK and Australia by Tanja Dorn at Dorn Music.