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Perlman discovers klezmer


I came across this lovely film while on my research into classical artists who have explored other genres. It's beautiful to watch the interaction as Perlman meets these klezmer musicians for the first time. At this point he's only been learning about klezmer for a couple of weeks, and at first he makes awkward jokes about playing classical repertoire, including a joke about his Strad ('When he made this fiddle did he ever imagine it would play klezmer?'). He looks pretty uncomfortable as he tries to understand the harmony and structure of the music. But as soon as he puts bow to string he's completely at home and strings out beautiful phrases, completely catches the idiom, and becomes integral to the group. What a natural!

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