If you are like me and my family, you are going to go to several concerts over the Christmas holiday season. For us, we really enjoy going to the Festival Hall at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest Hungary.... simply because of the excellent acoustics and great performances.
Usually we listen to classical music in this place...the building is actually built for these purposes. And it is practically a shrine for those who love classical music... the audience surely treats it like a shrine in their attitude and the demeanor.
However, I have had two recent opportunities to listen old jazz players play familiar tunes in this shrine of music.... McCoy Tyner and Dionne Warwick. These are great musicians and really gave amazing performances with some magnificant back up musicians.
During the McCoy Tyner concert, it was obvious that these 4 'dudes' were not comfortable with their position on this stage. The audience quietly clapped when Tyner came on as if he were the Concert Master. Then as he and his band tore out their first tune, the reaction from the audience was a quiet refrain of the applause. It was difficult for me, an American, as I love listening to jazz music... but usually in a small pub with a beer or two in front of me.
Now it is not the musician's fault. The public continues to take older, well-known musicians and elevate them from the small pubs they had spent their lives playing, and put them onto a smokeless stage about 20 metres from the audience -- tis strange indeed, but not the point. It is also not the audience's fault. This style of music on their 'classical' stage just doesn't fit. The person next to the audience member is not whistling and shouting, so they continue with what they know.... more of the quiet reserve of applause. It is simply a dis-joint from what they know (for both parties).
Enter Dionne Warwick. She is an old school performer and entertainer. She has spent the last 40 years bringing beautiful songs to her audiences with the poise of a great lady of Jazz/Pop.
As she took the stage, I was surprised that she was attempting to engage this audience (in English), encouraging them to clap or sing or both. "Yeah, right" was my only comment to my wife. And then I saw the most amazing thing.... the audience melted. Somewhere in the 3rd song, sung through a seriously cold infected throat, the people began to sing. As the song ended, the applause was spontaneous and loud. Dionne had somehow overcome 400 years of custom and Hungarian cultural tradition and took the audience to 'another place.' The Room, the Festival Hall, suddenly came alive. Oh, it still looked as sterile as it did 10 minutes earlier, but it was now filled with smiling audience members who clapped, and sang and commented to their partners between songs. The lady next to me knew every word and she was about 30 -- she sang every song.
I guess my comment is not about how difficult it is to break Hungarian performance 'scripts' or traditions... more I was in wonder how a elderly lady could stand on stage and single handidly do so. This performer's energy and desire to communicate with the audience is an old tradition and one which is not part of the current concert scene. In fact, I have been to some concerts recently (R.E.M.) where the performers spoke very few words to the audience execept to plug the title of their new song. So, Dionne was a delight. And if you were there, you know, that it was a magical concert for the audience as they themselves.... melted.
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