P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) & Itzhak Perlman - Konzertschtick for Two Violins Mit Orchestra

...absence in the solo violin parts of the note of middle C. Now, middle C, you know, it's sort of the center of our musical range. It's very unusual to have a piece that has no middle C's on it. In the solo parts, the only time it happens is at the end when the whole violin section is playing along with them. So I did some research about that, and I found that in the very last years of the 18th century, there was a man named Hans Holtzmann in Wijnam Rijn, who was a woodcutter and also a woodcarver. And he started carving scrolls, you know, that's the curly part on the end of the violin there. He made these beautiful scrolls. And violinists just fell in love with them. They started having them put on their own violins, you know. But then they found out that middle C just didn't speak. I mean, there was no tone. It was like muffled. And it turns out that it had to do with how it was carved. And so, of course, they got rid of them and stopped using them. And poor Holtzmann is still known as the man responsible for the dead sea scrolls. I'm glad to see such an appreciation for scholarship. I'm looking forward to hearing this work. This is only the second time it's been played in modern times, which probably means it's only the second time it's ever been played, knowing PDQ Bach's reputation. So all I can say is I'm terribly excited. Thank you. Thank you very much. I am pleased to share the stage with a major new star in the music world. He is a wonderful violinist. An artist like this only comes along once every generation. And we are fortunate to have him with us tonight. He's traveled thousands of miles from his native Russia to be with us for his debut. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome young Ivan Pirozhok. Professor Shickley, can you come up a minute, please? Look, maybe I could... But you don't play the violin. But my brother does. I've seen it many times. Look, ladies and gentlemen, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, fortunately, we have a substitute violinist. The bad news is he's never played the violin before, so... Is there a violin? Is there a violin? Why does that not surprise me? Excuse me. Well, ladies and gentlemen, making his debut tonight with the Boston Pops is Professor Peter Shickley. Okay, ready? One! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! One, two, three, four! Thank you. Professor Peter Shickley, with his recent discovery of a composition by the late composer P. D. Q. Bach, Konzertstück for two violins mid-orchestra, with Itzhak Perlman and John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Come on, John, sit down. Let's take a breather. Take a breather. John, you know, first of all, thank you very, very much for inviting me to do this Pops program. It's a great pleasure for us to have you here. It's a great privilege. And I also want to thank you for giving me the opportunity, as we mentioned at the beginning of the program, to do the music from Schindler's List. And really, just wonderful music, wonderful. Thank you so much. Terrific, terrific. Thank you. The opportunity to write this music is such a precious thing for me. And when you agreed to come here to Symphony Hall to record it with our orchestra and be the soloist for the film soundtrack, it was the capper at the top of this great experience. Well, you know, I was always wondering, you know, because when we first spoke about it, you were saying to me, you know, I'm doing this movie with Steven Spielberg about Schindler's List, and I sort of knew what it was about. And you were saying to me, well, I don't know about the music. Steven asked me to write this music. And I was always wondering, because the music is so, it's just the flavor is so right. And I wanted to, how did you do that? I mean, did you do some homework? Did you go to Israel for 20 hours and steep yourself? How was that? I wish I could have done that. I did that many years ago, working on Fiddler on the Roof. And I did go to Jerusalem, in fact, and research some Hebraic music. But, of course, it's universal, I think, to all musicians, too. I think so. But the inspiration really, I think, was the film itself, which was dealing, as it did, with the horrific experiences of World War II and the unspeakable brutality that people were subjected to. And yet, in the end, the film was ennobling and beautiful and poetic in some way, that something in the human spirit in one person, in the midst of all this tumult, would come forward with this expression of humanity. Tell me, how was that? This is a source of inspiration, really. So, was that different? Because I know you've done so many movies with Steven Spielberg. Was that something special? Yes, the texture is very different. Steven Spielberg, of course, is a great world-class expert on live action, with great production, people flying and battleships crashing into each other and all this kind of thing. And that requires lots of trumpets and cymbals and timpani and all this kind of musical expression, whereas Schindler's List couldn't have been more fragile musically and more delicate in the way it was portraying the experience of these people. Well, I know that when I first, I was just in Israel a couple of months ago, and every night we played one of the themes from Schindler's List as an encore, and everybody just loved it. They'd be very happy. Should we do some of that today? Please, yes. Okay, let's do that. ♪♪ Jewish town and main theme composed by John Williams for the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg. Itzhak Krohman recreating his solo performance for the soundtrack with the composer conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra. here again is John Williams with music by Leroy Anderson. First, Bell of the Ball. Leroy Anderson. John Williams conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra. Next, a Leroy Anderson classic, The Syncopated Cluck. ♪♪ The Syncopated Cluck by Leroy Anderson. Once leader of the Harvard University Band, Mr. Anderson's first composition was performed by Arthur Fiedler and the band.