Last night was the night I went with Nadia and her family (Willy and their mom) to watch the much anticipated Igudesman & Joo concert at Carnegie Hall. The Duo's (from the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School) second perfomance in NYC, first at Carnegie.
And their surprise guests: world class violinist Joshua Bell (famed for the Washington Street Experiment) and Billy Joel, the piano man who could do harmonica simultaneously.
There were some repeated sketches that I've seen on youtube, some new ones (ie. Alien violinist, special guests, etc.), no strict asian piano teacher (which was on youtube).
The crowd were definitely having a great time. Especially the two surprise guests appeared at the end. After all, Joo's zeal for pedagogy in music motivated them to make classical fun, which is their motto/collective dream: "is to make classical music accessible to a wider and younger audience".
Seeing much repeated scenes, I thought they were out of idea and the show would last less than 1 and a half hour, but it ended after around 2:30 hours, as the crowd kept cheering for encores.
There are some silliness to the whole thing, but I perceive and deeply admire their zeal in musical pedagogy.
"It (I think this was referring to the $29 per person ticket I bought) was well worth it", Nadia told me after the show, as we marched West a couple blocks for Totto Ramen.
And I just learned from youtube that there is a virtuoso who's mastered both violin and piano in performance, a German, Julia Fischer.