RE: questions

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <yiddish...>]

Yes, Perlman was improvising at Damrosch Park.  But also remember that he 
was introduced to the audience as a new "student" of klezmer music, in the 
same way that he was portrayed in the video.  We were all too thrilled with 
the idea of this unannounced "surprise guest" coming to play with all the 
heymishe klezmer to be exacting.  It was all gut genug.  I don't know what 
happened at the first recording.

Note, I believe I wrote about this before.  The sound one hears while 
seeing the Damrosch concert footage in "Yitshak Perlman: In the Fiddler's 
House", was faked by Josh Waletzky, the film's "director of editing". 
 (Josh was officially listed as 'editor', but he was really the director of 
the video, since the video was created and reconceived by Josh in his 
editing room.  In order to save money on paying a 'director', the producer 
of "In the Fiddler's House" named himself and the cameraman as the 
directors of the video.  Neither one ever 'directed' anything before or 
since, but they knew that in his role as the ITFH editor, Josh, being a 
director and seminal founder of the klezmer revival, would know how to make 
something of all the footage they shot or he was telling them to shoot.) 
 You may like live music, but I know that even Josh wouldn't use that live 
music in making the video.  Because the sound was thoroughly impossible at 
Damrosch, Josh took the video sound of everyone playing "live" in Cracow 
two weeks earlier and matched it to the Damrosch footage.  As a master 
sound editor of documentaries, he certainly knows every trick in the book 
with sound, music, and speech.  I have no idea what sounds Josh "fixed" or 
"improved", in creating the video's fabulous soundtrack, but he usually 
does perform such tasks on every film he works on.  (I distinctly remember 
that he said he wouldn't "touch" any of Deborah Strauss's playing, which he 
loved.)  You can ask him, he does subscribe to this list.  (He may not 
tell.)  Remember that, although the whole "spirit" of the Damrosch 1995 
concert remains unforgettable, our memory of the "sound" of the Damrosch 
concert has probably been "improved" with our every viewing of the video. 
 The first recording happened that same summer, but the second recording 
happened about a year or so later.  I guess Perlman forgot how to play in 
the interim or was just too busy to sit and re-learn improvisation 
techniques.  Probably the latter.  There are enough of those musicians on 
this list to tell that history.  (But they may not want to either.)

I was out of town when they played in NYC, so I have no idea what was or 
wasn't improvised in the concerts.  It seems that although the products of 
that work are superb, whatever klezmer techniques Perlman learned in the 
making of the video/recording, they didn't seem to have taken hold.  The 
fact is that the idea of Perlman re-discovering his own musical roots was 
an idea that was cooked up at PBS because they wanted to make a product 
with the ever popular Perlman.  It was not Perlman's idea.  Had he 
initiated it, the results may have been different for him.  It's really too 
bad.

I understand that Perlman said at the video premiere party that he was 
surprised they it came out so good.  Well, now you know why.

>That's too bad, because live music is more exciting, even if it is less 
perfect.

'Perfect' is a relative term.  Not all errors are equal.  Some are creative 
but most are unwanted.


Reyzl


----------
From:  Marvin [SMTP:physchem (at) telocity(dot)com]
Sent:  Tuesday, January 22, 2002 12:05 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  Re: questions

I was at the Damrosch Park concert where Perlman played with a group of
klezmer musicians.  There was NO sheet music in sight.  There may have been
a practice session beforehand, and if so it wasn't done "off the cuff", but
Perlman certainly gave the impression that he was improvising.

The CD of that concert was done in a studio after the concert because there
were problems with the sound system.  That's too bad, because live music is
more exciting, even if it is less perfect.

I also saw Perlman with the group that made the second CD, at Radio City
Music Hall.  That was certainly not improvised, and I think the first CD 
was
far better.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky" <yiddish (at) waletzky(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 9:50 AM
Subject: RE: questions


> Judith,
>
> They say that this is how Yitshak Perlman played klezmer on the second CD
> with the klezmer bands.  Despite all the hoopla of the film, concert
> series, and first extraordinarily successful CD, Perlman never really
> learned how to play klezmer music.  So he asked a "trustworthy, talented
> musician" like Hankus to transcribe every note for him to play.
>
> >Would that be enough for the hypothetical Yiddish song/klezmer melodies
> >repertoire in question, or if it were at all possible to hear the music
> >in addition to having the transcriptions and background notes, would
> >that be preferable?
>
> Enough for what?  Learning the style or just learning how to improvise?
>
> Obviously despite:
> 1) being the greatest living fiddler in the world,
> 2) having heard the music
> 3) having a lifelong familiarity with the "repertoire of Yiddish song
>    and/or of klezmer music"
> 4) having much background in the (Jewish) tradition
> 5) having heard commercial and non-commercial recordings
> 6) having the ability to speak Yiddish since childhood and
> 7) being familiar with the tunes and the style
>
> may still not be enough to being able to play klezmer music.
>  Transcriptions were preferable for Perlman.  The fact is that musicians
> play from transcriptions so much more often than anyone imagines - today,
> in the old days, and throughout the klezmer revival.  The quality of the
> music then reflects the skillfulness of the transcriber more than the
> talent of the musician, including, in some cases I have seen, the
> transcriber's clout/insistence that the musician play the music exactly
"as
> it is written".  The revival was built on a "trustworthy, talented
> musician" writing out the transcriptions.
>
> This is also why Secunda, the composer/music director rejected the then
> 20-year old Gershwin from playing in his Yiddish theater orchestra.
>  Secunda couldn't believe that someone could be brilliant enough of a
> musician to play the music well "enough" if he couldn't read music, the
> moral equivalent of a "transcription".  Yes, in the case of Gershwin, a
> rare talent can do that.  Pavarotti can still not read music.
>
> Or was the problem in Perlman's case that playing classical music with
> orchestras his whole life, ruined his ability to improvise?   Who knows.
>
> Uh oh, did I just tell some big secrets?   Tse, tse, tse.
>
>
> Reyzl



---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+