Video: All About Gidon teaser

“All about Gidon” paraphrases the title of a movie made over half a century ago (“All about Eve”) and is intended as a reflection on the world of music. Just as the biography of an artist allows one to metaphorically enter a backstage and see its activities, this reflection allows the listener to enter spaces that are not accessible to audiences. The status of a “star” is usually well promoted by marketing strategies nowadays and often plays a much more important role than the substance of what is so dear to us – music itself, its emotional power, its potential as an enriching experience.

We are all artists – none less, than others!  We are also the “results” of our upbringing that influences our ability to adjust or to resent many things imposed on us by parents, teachers and then, in later life, by managers, critics, audiences.  Even more so, politics may have had a big influence on our upbringing as well.  Believe me, as someone who grew up in a totalitarian state, I had to juggle at least half of my life between those who told all of us what was “right” and those, whom I FELT (along with some friends) ACTUALLY WERE RIGHT!

Our own independence is very often at stake when we give in to the temptation to please someone else or to be successful.  Those in power are very adept at manipulating our weaknesses for their own interests.  I learned this while living for decades “In Between Worlds” (It’s no wonder why it became the title of my second book).

All of my life I have tried to SERVE music, to be of use to its creators-composers, to share sounds with my dear colleagues and friends.  Lately, I worry more and more about the capability of an audience to differentiate between what is “real” and what is “fake”. We live in a world in which glamour and small talk, prices and ratings carry much more weight than necessary.  It seems that if a “product” (and an artist by many is regarded as such) SELLS well, then the price defines its value. It is a typical market philosophy.  I can’t resist defining it as “wrong”.

“All about Gidon” is based on my personal experiences and is an attempt at warning against the impositions made on us by the cold-blooded music industry.  We want to free you from this infectious disease that causes one to rely on and trust the opinions of so-called “specialists” – to be cheated by splendid instrumental performances gaining loud applause and winning “global approval”.  A magnifying glass should allow you to better see the substance of what music CAN or, in fact, SHOULD be!

“All about Gidon” is meant to speak to you not only via sounds, but through words as well.  No, we do not believe that we can replace the power of music by texts or anecdotes.  However, at the same time, we all know quite well that occasionally words can allow us to take a better direction.  Especially if they are PERSONAL.

As a violinist and as a musician, I have tried my entire life to be authentic and sincere.

I would like to hope that adding certain “stories” to the great music that Kremerata Baltica and I are going to play will not diminish the emotional impact of tonight’s unusual “concert”, but will rather remind us of where the sounds start and what they are meant to affect.

Please rest assured that if there is something we really do not want to present, it is a type of “crossover” that is ever so popular nowadays.  Words and music are not often able to “marry” each other.  But still, exceptions always existed – the great “Lieder” and, of course, some operas (Piazzolla’s and Ferrer’s “Maria de Buenos Aires”- a brilliant masterwork) are the best examples of it.

But there is one more “ingredient” important to us and that is a sense of humor and comedy.  We often forget that the ability to laugh is an important element of our mental health.  Humor is like music- it talks to us directly, it touches and moves us to recognize our true SOUL, often hidden behind pretentious appearances and words.

“All about Gidon” is in fact meant to be “All about…artists”.  I am just one of them, but in speaking about myself, I do try to speak about others.  I am not so important – many artists come and go.  As do listeners and audiences….  So there is no chance for one “winner”.  The last thing we wish to pursue with this “production” would be for it to be a “success”.  If there is anyone who may gain something from our “story telling with music”, it would only be…YOU.

Give yourself the chance of discovery tonight.  I can assure you that whatever will be presented here is true. “The whole truth and nothing but the truth” is a quotation so familiar to all of us and is….(unfortunately) so seldom listened to or voiced.

GK