A while ago we went to the MOMA to see a movie and to our surprise the admittance to the movie theater was quite delayed. We finally detected a row of policemen, dressed in black, with their ready machine guns standing there outside the museum — we assumed this maybe was in connection with our delay. But we never found out. Sitting around and waiting, I got to talk to a lady next to me and learned that Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester http://www.palastorchester.de/en/home/ were in town. She talked about this in such an animated and charmed way that I was hooked immediately although I had to admit that I never heard of him. But when she mentioned that this included music and cabaret from the time of the Weimar Republic I was completely sold. And so Jay and I went to Carnegie Hall www.carnegiehall.org/article/the_basics/art_overview.html.
Mr. Raabe and his gifted musicians performed in immaculate evening dress—tailcoats and double-breasted black or white dinner jackets, with shirtfronts and batwing collars starched to a board-like stiffness forgotten by us very casual present time dressers lacking any formality.
If he was not singing romantic ballads and "pop" songs of the twenties in his “schmaltzy", beautiful and oh so flexible voice he was just leaning against the piano, one arm on top of it, looking incredibly elegant and bored. One was just transported for a moment into the twenties sitting in one of these sleazy night clubs. The lady next to me breathed “Oh there is Max!” Some of the songs were quite familiar to me from my father singing these tunes ("Wenn die Elizabeth nicht so schoene Beine haett' etc.) and there was also some Brecht — just great! One felt like humming along. The musicians sat behind individual old fashioned podiums and each of them got up here and there for a solo or a special performance, yes, great entertainment and even clowning around in Carnegie Hall! What an enjoyable evening. The theater was sold out completely and the audience was extremely enthusiastic.
No comments:
Post a Comment