Adventures in modern musicological archaeology (page 80)
or Music we dug up
Classics @ The Reid Series
Drams 0
Music Wolfgang Amadeus Schwartz: Quartet 'The monster and the maiden' - Finale: Theme and variations (edited extracts by Barry Socher); Barry Socher: Spring fever, after Vivaldi; Friedrich Berthold Ignatz Bach (edited by Barry Schwartz): The Fugue-ative; P D Q Bach (edited by Prof. Peter Schikele): The seasonings - 4. Fugue; Barry Socher: Audition blues; Debussy Fields (edited by Barry Socher): prelude to the afternoon on a farm; Barry Socher: Pachelbel cannonball
Musicians Julius Marx Memorial String Quartet and friends: Barry Socher & Mitchell Newman (violins); Leticia Oaks Strong (viola); Daniel Rothmuller (cello); Joanne Pearce Martin (piano); Boyde Hood (trumpet) - AKA Members of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra
Venue Reid Hall (Venue 201)
Address Bristo Square
Reviewer Pat Napier

If this hilarious hour doesn't net Week 2's Fringe First award, then there's no justice in this world. Fringe 2003 has seen the debut performance of the results of many years of very fruitful musical excavation. Precisely in keeping with this work, the audience had to wait outside for ten minutes while a panic search for music - reportedly left in a taxi - was found. This gave us all time to read the programme and thus suss out a glimmering of what we were in for and - more valuably - important clues to the fast and furious references cram-jammed into each musical offering that zoomed past too fast to pin down.

Onto the vast landscape of the Reid Hall's stage shuffled a quartet of Marx Brothers fan club escapees, complete with the regulation masks. A high speed routine of mistaken places and mixed up music had us all laughing in moments and the laughter didn't stop for the whole hour.

Prof. Barry Socher

The First Violin, the much-in-evidence Professor Barry Socher, spoke about each piece, embroidering essential background material into the fabric of the music. For example: the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Schwartz (he of the fairly happy childhood and bar mitzvah at 33 years of age) turned out to be such a close and revered friend of Leopold Mozart that his name was chosen for Leopold's son. The piece itself was a ten minute romp, with a theme sounding suspiciously like Havanagila followed by dazzling variations.

Rapidly abandoning any attempt to track what was going on, I must resort to laughter-driven impressions. Vivaldi was as we'd never known it. The pianist joined the team for this and we had to listen carefully to try to catch the many references - often only a few bars long - such Alouette and (near the end) the song A summer of roses and wine, shouldering their way through the main theme.

The first 'Bach' was a very witty take on the maestro's Toccata and fugue in D minor, supposedly his only work, written for a one armed organist. The P D Q Bach was "the grossest fugue of all time", upsetting the viola player so much that she begged Barry to stop, fearing that he'd play it right through... Audition blues was for all musicians who'd ever had to audition. The Debussy Fields piece was a hilarious pastiche, including appropriate nursery rhymes such as Mary had a little lamb, The farmer's in his den and so on. The cellist sulked at having to do the Pachelbel cannon - sorry, cannonball - "the same 8 bars over and over again". The sulk worsened into non-cooperation and then he teamed up with the pianist; promtly doing their own thing - but they all ended together. He slunk off in disgrace, head hanging ay his bad behaviour.

Their encore was equally improbable: the Sibelius Finlandia in tango time to remember the Finns' discovery of tango during the LA Phil's visit to Helsinki some 10 years ago. A master class in affectionate musical humour that will sparkle in the memory for a long, long time. Long live creative irreverence!

© Pat Napier. 13 August 2003. Published on www.EdinburghGuide.com
Two appearances only: 12 and 13 August.

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