Tendencies of Development of the Musical Trend Classical Crossover in the Performances of the Instrumental Duo “Igudesman & Joo”

Abstract

The performance artistry of the instrumental duo “Igudesman & Joo,” which has obtained popularity in 2004 after their presentation of the show “A Little Nightmare Music,” has demonstrated a new stage of development of the classical crossover trend in violin performance. Through the prism of the comic element the composers’ style of the past (Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, etc.) become correlated with the experience of contemporary concert practice (“Bach vs Vanessa Mae”) with the realities of modern life – the necessity of bringing in the “code and password” for the opportunity for playing on the musical instrument, the recreation of the situation of a swift reconnoitering “surfing” on television and radio channels, internet websites, and the rubrics of discs (the show “Being Gidon Kremer”). Actively used by mass culture, the hedonism of laughter by means of diverse stylistic techniques of creation of comic effects (unusual juxtapositions in “Mozart Bond,” transformation of academic themes, etc.) obtains an intellectual foundation. The cognition of the concept-oriented field of compositions saturated with comical images alters the means of perception of musical compositions based not as much on mechanisms of feeling and empathy as on reflection. Understanding the stylistically heterogeneous artistic image (collage technique, comic devices) presumes an orientation on a broad musical and historical perspective on the part of the listener. Keywords: contemporary violin performance, classical crossover, the instrumental duo “Igudesman & Joo.”