A MISHMASH OF A MISMATCH
Stanley Pinto on the Maria Peterson - Stefan Pontinen performance
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The East Meets West concert presented by the Bangalore School of Music at Opus last week did Jazz, already an endangered music form, no favours.
Ms Peterson, with a charming voice and stage presence, showed every indication of being a proficient singer of ballads. But no singer, however great, can deliver the goods without the appropriate accompaniment. And a violin, even in the hands of a Menuhin, is anything but appropriate to the task.
First, the violin is a soloist instrument, not one that can provide the accompaniment against which to showcase a singer. That would require a piano or a guitar or any instrument that provides the choral background that a voice requires. The most charitable explanation for BSM’s bizarre decision to pair the two is ignorance of this fundamental, even though its director is herself a singer of several decades’ standing.
Equally important, at the end of two hours, it was impossible to tell what genre of music Pontinen is comfortable in, let alone proficient at. Certainly not jazz. I am reminded of the legendary conductor Toscanini once asking a lady cellist of his symphony orchestra why, despite having one the world’s most wonderful instrument between her legs, all she could do was scratch at it.
Mr Pontinen scratched and scraped all through the evening’s presentation, in a futile attempt to provide the singer with the platform she needed to take off. And his few attempts to accompany her on the piano were offensive to an audience that certainly was sophisticated enough to know that he was way way out of his depth on that instrument.
The difference was graphically demonstrated when a pianist in the audience (uncharacteristic modesty prevents me from identifying him – in any event who he was isn’t relevant to the point I am making) went onstage to accompany Ms Peterson in her last song of the evening, a Spiritual that brought her and the audience alive for the one and only time during her performance.
The saving grace of the evening was provided by the excellent electric bass and tabla players.
It was a sell-out evening with more people packed into the wonderful Opus than I have ever seen before. But what a cop-out the evening’s featured performance was.
Stanley Pinto on the Maria Peterson - Stefan Pontinen performance
_____________________________________________________
The East Meets West concert presented by the Bangalore School of Music at Opus last week did Jazz, already an endangered music form, no favours.
Ms Peterson, with a charming voice and stage presence, showed every indication of being a proficient singer of ballads. But no singer, however great, can deliver the goods without the appropriate accompaniment. And a violin, even in the hands of a Menuhin, is anything but appropriate to the task.
First, the violin is a soloist instrument, not one that can provide the accompaniment against which to showcase a singer. That would require a piano or a guitar or any instrument that provides the choral background that a voice requires. The most charitable explanation for BSM’s bizarre decision to pair the two is ignorance of this fundamental, even though its director is herself a singer of several decades’ standing.
Equally important, at the end of two hours, it was impossible to tell what genre of music Pontinen is comfortable in, let alone proficient at. Certainly not jazz. I am reminded of the legendary conductor Toscanini once asking a lady cellist of his symphony orchestra why, despite having one the world’s most wonderful instrument between her legs, all she could do was scratch at it.
Mr Pontinen scratched and scraped all through the evening’s presentation, in a futile attempt to provide the singer with the platform she needed to take off. And his few attempts to accompany her on the piano were offensive to an audience that certainly was sophisticated enough to know that he was way way out of his depth on that instrument.
The difference was graphically demonstrated when a pianist in the audience (uncharacteristic modesty prevents me from identifying him – in any event who he was isn’t relevant to the point I am making) went onstage to accompany Ms Peterson in her last song of the evening, a Spiritual that brought her and the audience alive for the one and only time during her performance.
The saving grace of the evening was provided by the excellent electric bass and tabla players.
It was a sell-out evening with more people packed into the wonderful Opus than I have ever seen before. But what a cop-out the evening’s featured performance was.
