Re: Pearlman show on PBS

[Paul M. Gifford <gifford_p...>]

In article <49e61r$ole (at) news(dot)ysu(dot)edu> bj193 (at) 
yfn(dot)ysu(dot)edu (Noah Schaffer) writes:

>I'm afraid that I was rather disapointed with this show. While it
>was nice that groups like the Klezmatics, Klezmer Conservatory Band, Brave Old
>World, etc. got to be on national television, the music played
>was far below what they are capable of. This was a result of the
>fact
>that the entire program is merely Pearlman walking into rooms
>with these bands and jamming without any real care for making
>thoughtful musical statements. One could even agrgue that Perlman
>showed a rather arrogant, patronizing attitude towards klezmer--he can just 
>pick up his fiddle and play, without bothering to create music with any 
>intelligence--after all, this is "simple folks" music.

I agree somewhat, but then again, Perlman's role in this film was that of a 
"personality," a host, someone already familiar to PBS viewers.  He also has 
to maintain his reputation as a virtuoso----if he took himself seriously as a 
wedding musician, his reputation as a concert musician would suffer.  If he 
came off as arrogant or patronizing, it probably relected this dilemma.

On the whole, though, I liked it.

Paul Gifford