Dudamel shows Perlman how to play the Mendelssohn concerto
OrchestrasA snatch of weekend levity.
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Musicians like to have fun. That’s why they call it “playing” the violin.
When you are so rich so rich, oh so rich, that you can make former stars look like clowns. Shame, shame, shame “DUDE” !!!
His ‘sin’ is being rich though, isn’t it, if you’re really telling the truth. I wish him even more good fortune.
Itzhak Perlman notoriously has a sense of humour. He’s also a grown adult who can decide for himself when he wants to goof around and with whom. Chill.
Exactly. Watch this old video of Perlman’s performance of PDQ’s Konzertshtick for Two Violins Mit Orchestra for a taste of his humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSM6Qlf3NU
That’s wonderful…and isn’t that John Williams conducting?
from the looks of it, mr perlman is making mr dudamel the straight man, but all in good fun. no harm done, yes?
Why this need to be ridiculous ? Is this the way to uplift thé students ? I am afraid not…
Did Perlman allow his own instrument (presumably, a very fine and expensive one) to be used by Dudamel? The latter was standing so precariously, with his two feet situated near the corners of two different platforms (one of which was a narrow step up to the main conductor’s podium) that had a small gap between them, the edges which were not even parallel. When watching, I was in constant fear of Dudamel losing his footing and coming crashing down violin first.
And is Perlman’s marker joke supposed to imply that marking positions on the fingerboard is a respectable pedagogical tool? I was under the impression that marking positions is bad practice, since it encourages a counterproductive dependency — surely, one is supposed to find positions primarily by feel, not by eye, and one should not get into the habit of having one’s eyes staring constantly at the fingerboard.
ASHD – Acute Sense of Humour Deficiency (unless of course you were meaning to be dead-pan?).
Well I didn’t find it funny. The whole thing was just silly.
Dudamel is a trained violinist. I think he knows how to handle an instrument.
As someone who’s seen all sorts of fun things happen in rehearsals over the years, this is a such an endearing piece of gentle rehearsal levity. With respect to the handful of negative commenters above, thank heavens this sort of thing happens in rehearsals: it makes for a great bond between all the performers – and Perlman is more than game for such harmless messing around. In this case it was right at the end of a morning’s rehearsal, just before the lunch break, so everyone on stage will have gone away feeling good (excellent psychology).
Elsewhere too Perlman enjoys a bit of gentle fun: watch his cameo appearance in the RomCom “Here today” (2021) where director Billy Crystal manages to pull in appearances by Sharon Stone, Bob Costas, Kevin Kline and Barry Levinson, as well as Itzhak Perlman. “He came late one night, and he is sitting in the window playing,” Crystal said. “That’s him playing live! It was another great new friend who wanted to be in the picture.”
Perlman is a delightful human beign, he was such a good sport in the movie “Everybody says I love you”, really enjoyable.
Apparently when George Szell would demonstrate to a piano soloists how something should be played, he was readily serious.
(But there are stories too about Leon Fleisher welcoming his advice.)
already copyright-struck. BAH!
I am surprised at the intensity of the negative comments — haven’t these folks been to a Perlman concert and seen or heard all the many jokes and bits of stage business he’s worked up over the years? Back when he’d walk out on stage using crutches (for the last several years he has used a motorized chair at the concerts I have attended) sometimes the conductor would bring out the violin and bow, but more often the concertmaster would be holding Perlman’s violin and bow for him and hand it over once Perlman was seated. The comedic bit: Perlman would look at the fiddle, frown, and glare at the concertmaster who would “reluctantly” swap it for Perlman’s actual violin. I saw him do this “nice try, pal” act several times with more than one orchestra. It was funny every time.