Re: Greenman and Ruchefsky - I mean, Fedoriouk

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

Thanks for sharing that. Makes me truly sad I couldn't have been there,
sounds like it really was something a bit special. (Sadly, it's a bit more
than a morning's drive from this side of the pond..

And this happens in NYC?! I'm amazed...


Richard
"Renaissance Man"

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 28/04/2003 at 17:05 r l reidr l reid wrote:

>It was small but intense.  Those few of us who were there couldn't 
>believe how many folks were missing it.
>
>I did hear from one stalwart from South Orange who turned back on seeing
the 
>one hour backup to get in the tunnel.  And it was the first really nice 
>day in a long time.  But still...
>
>Sunday afternoon at Tonic 107 in the Lower East Side was scheduled to have

>Steven Greenman - who most folks here know is a violin player of exquisite

>talent and sensitivity - and Pete Rushefsky, one of the greatest of 
>the "second generation revivalist" tsimbl players.
>
>Sadly, Pete's grandfather passed away and he was at the funeral.  But in a

>bit of luck, Alexander Fedoriouk was in town, with cymbalom (the Hungarian

>big sister of the tsimbl).
>
>Now, Alex is not specifically a klezmer player.  In fact, for him it was 
>Easter, being on the Orthodox (Christian) calendar.   What he is though is
a 
>great player whose whirling hands have a LOT to say.
>
>So there we were, five of us in the audience.  Four of us were over the 
>age of  ba[rt] mitzvah.  I had heard Alex's recordings before but never 
>met him or heard him in person.
>
>Steven set some sheets in from of Alex, explained the situation, explained

>that they'd had about 10 minutes time to work together before the show, 
>and that there'd be more of a Moldavian and Gypsy aspect to the program 
>as a result.
>
>What followed was an hour of fine music, ranging from all over the 
>villages of south eastern Europe.  What surprised me most was that 
>much of what was being played were compositions of Steven's, which 
>strike you as "a great old tune you've never heard before" - including a 
>deliciously beautiful "heart yearning niggun" that he composed in 
>Lubavitch style.  
>
>After an intermission, in which 3 of the 5 left, they were ready to play 
>again when our number was suddenly swelled by Zev Feldman, Josh Waletzky, 
>and a couple other folks who could just as well been on the stage as off.
>
>Besides me, the only other attendee who got both shows was a young woman 
>who, if I overheard right, has done some modern dance on a few selections 
>from the Khevirsa CD.  With Zev and a friend there now, naturally Steven 
>and Alexander played out some freylachs and horas, and dance class was 
>in session.
>
>The shame of it all is that so many people who could have gotten so much, 
>missed it.  I'm also a little embarrassed, since these guys are from out
of 
>town, that they schlepped all the way there for so few of us - come on, 
>you'd think in NYC we could do better.
>
>I pointed out to the management of Tonic that what the audience lacked in 
>quantity it made up for in quality.  Also an intimacy - Steven was 
>explaining the setup of his "playing on the second string" fiddle (the 
>A string is moved much closer to the E string and tuned down to an E an 
>octave below, and the two strings are played as one - if you hear it you 
>instantly recognize that sound from certain tracks on Khevrisa) and 
>because of the smallness of the group I could just walk right up and 
>look at it.
>
>For me as an amateur tsimbler, it was thrilling to see Fedoriouk at work.

>In Jewish tsimbl, there's not a huge value placed on speed and virtuosity.
 
>But those are two of the many aspects of Fedoriouk's talent.  Usually you 
>can watch a tsimbl players hands.  In his case, there come points where
it's 
>like a movie -- you cannot distinguish anything but you see a blur that 
>looks like his hands are occupying many spaces at once.  Of course it's
not 
>just speed - the choice of what to play when, while it might not satisfy
the 
>Klezmer Police, was delightful, dynamic, always pushing the tune onward.
>
>I also marveled at how relaxed he was, physically.  Motion with phrases
was 
>confined to tiny motions of the hands and wrists - with a slight lift at
the 
>elbow between phrases.  Shoulder down, not up around his ears in a mass of

>tension like when I play.
>
>It was a great afternoon for the few who were there.
>
>roger reid


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