New Delhi:
It's a comic show, it's a music concert, it's, well, both.
If you've got the Monday blues, here's something that should work as antidote. These gentlemen will make you smile, giggle, laugh without ever striking a discordant note.
Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo are musicians on an avowed mission to make classical music young and popular. Their website claims their clips on YouTube, such as this one below, have had 15 million hits and I find no reason to doubt that.
This is not just a comic act that makes some music. The two studied music and met at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, burst on the scene in 2004 with a show called 'A Little Nightmare Music' and have performed with major symphony orchestras around the world as well as with big names in both classical music and pop music.
But they are very seriously funny. Even as Aleksey Igudesman is warming up on his "Santo Seraphin violin from the year 1717", you have tears rolling down your eyes. Sample this from their bios:
"Aleksey Igudesman was born in Leningrad at a very young age. He has never won any competitions, mainly because he has never entered any... Aleksey Igudesman writes a lot of music. Often he goes to bed writing and gets up writing."
"Hyung-ki Joo was born. He is British, but looks Korean, or the other way around, or both. He showed his first signs of a sense of comedy whilst nappy-changing and shortly thereafter, showed his love for music when his parents would find him at the record store listening for hours to everything from Mozart to Bee Gees. (Although the two are never to be confused, Hyung-ki is often heard singing "Don Giovanni" in the style of Barry Gibb)."
How they began, in their own words: "Back at school he (Igudesman) met his "IGUDESMAN & JOO" partner, Richard Hyung-ki Joo. After a few initial small differences, resulting in several people holding them both back from smashing chairs and music stands on each other's heads, Joo offered Igudesman some fish and chips, which he simply could not refuse."
And from Joo's profile: "He started piano lessons at the age of eight and a half and two years later won a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School. There, he discovered that he was among geniuses and child prodigies and was convinced he would be kicked out of school, year after year. In fact, he was not kicked "out" but kicked "around" by teachers and fellow students, such as Aleksey Igudesman. After these painful experiences, Joo invented a new type of piano playing known as 'Karate Piano'. (Read it all on their website.
http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com)
Does it surprise you that their 2010 German TV documentary is actually a mockumentary titled "Every-thing You Always Wanted to Know About Classical Music."
They have a Facebook page, so if Igudesman and Joo made your Monday, you could check it out here for more details. (
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18708196664)
We are crawling the Web for more great videos, tweets pictures, blogs and people that just must be showcased. If you spot some that make you stop and stare,
send them in here. We'll be happy to credit it to your spidery efforts on the WWW.