It is supposedly ‘classical week’ on the US TV talent show and it was kicked off last night by none other than the prodigious violinist, Joshua Bell.
Josh is no stranger to mass media, but many will feel this is a gig too far. Aside from an opening dance by the ‘opera singer’ Katherine Jenkins to what was billed as a “Game of Thrones” theme dance a Rumba to one of Katherine’s favourite tunes – the “Cannon in D” by Pachelbel, the rest of the show consisted of waltzes and tangos by such classical eminences as Lady Gaga.
So why does Josh offer to give trash television a gloss of classical credence with a short burst of Vivaldi? All the usual reasons, I suppose, and his advisers will have told him that national exposure never does anyone any harm.
Oh, yes it does. Josh is at the stage of mid-career when he is trying to impress us as a serious interpreter. Last year, he became music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, an impeccably classical ensemble.
From today he will be most widely known as the curtain-raiser on a fame show, the warm-up act to Katherine Jenkins.
Those two aspirations are non-compatible. Something’s got to give.
UPDATE: The show also featured cameos by child star Jackie Evancho and tenor Vittorio Grigolo. Full report here.
UPDATE2: Jackie’s performance has been posted on Youtube. And so, belatedly, has Joshua’s.
Nope. No Lady Gaga. But your fave subject (and maximum post generator) non-opera singer Jackie Evancho sang Ave Maria (Schubert), and Dark Waltz. Her Dream With Me CD sales rank on amazon.com went from 187 to 21 over the span of five hours. Not bad for the little squirt.
Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo also added his voice to the “gig too far”, and was well-received by the gathering of raucous free-ticket holders at CBS Television City in Los Angeles.
Read the blurb: the last waltz was by Lady G.
Thanks for the correction. That did seem a strange song. At least it was performed by the orchestra. Here’s the line-up:
April 30, 2012 Dancing with the Stars Season 14 Music – Classical Week
Katherine & Mark danced a Rumba to the song “Canon in D Major” —Johann Pachelbel
Melissa & Maks danced a Argentine Tango to the song “Marriage of Figaro” —Wolfgang Mozart
William & Cheryl danced a Viennese Waltz to the song “Ave Maria” — Franz Schubert (Performed by Jackie Evancho)
Roshon & Chelsie danced a Argentine Tango to the song “Bad Romance” —Lady Gaga
Donald & Peta danced a Viennese Waltz to the song “La Donna è Mobile” —Giuseppe Verdi (Performed by Vittorio Grigolo)
Maria & Derek danced a Paso Doble to the song “March of the Knights”—Sergei Prokofiev
Jaleel & Kym danced a Viennese Waltz to the song “Did I Make the Most of Loving You?” —Mary-Jess Leaverland
Prior to the “team” competition, Jackie sang “Dark Waltz” during the pro dance performance with Tristan MacManus and Karina Smirnoff.
Maria & Derek, Katherine & Mark, Roshon & Chelsie and Jaleel & Kym danced a Team Tango to the song
Donald & Peta, Melissa & Maks and William & Cheryl danced a Team Paso Doble to the song “O Fortuna” —Carl Orff (Performed by Vittorio Grigolo)
thanks!
Thank you for an A-list!!
What song did Team Tango dance to?
With everyone moaning about the diminishing size of the classical music audience, I say BRAVO to Bell for letting a wide audience enjoy his artistry. Kudos to the television show for having a classical program where there is so little classical music to be seen on network television these days. If Bell is good enough for traditional classical concert goers, there’s no reason he should not play to the masses–which is what this music was created for hundreds of years ago. Your comments are elitist and myopic.
absolutely true! i am a symphony season ticket holder and still mourn the loss of our local opera. i watched dwts and thought it was perfection. classical music was just introduced to thousands of kids and adults for the first time, perhaps. don’t take it for granted.
“Josh” ? bleurgh! We’re not all chums with the stars, Norm.
Don’t have to be chums. It’s how he’s known across the biz.
OMG ignorance gone rampant!
I didn’t have a problem with Joshua Bell’s performance. At least he played something genuinely classical, not like David Garrett last year. He didn’t abase himself to singing pop arrangements of classics; David Garrett ‘played’ Beethoven’s 5th last year, while of course retaining the ‘title’ of World-class classical violinist.
Grigolo was more problematic. He cracked on the final top C in La Donna e Mobile, and lost the tempo several times in O Fortuna (which was quite bad). Evancho, at least, sang crossover music, and not operatic arias.
Grigolo would be the first tenor to sing a top C in “La Donna è mobile” – unless he sang the aria a semitone up.
Precision: my mother’s a fan. I’m not…
I sincerely do not believe that these kind of activities by classical music performers will attract more public to the concert halls. They may momentarily raise record sales, but won’t bring more public to listen to Beethoven.
Charles, the Prokofiev was from Romeo & Juliet & it was the Montagues & Capulets movement. I believe it was an Argentian tango, not a paso doble. It was badly miked, with a too-small orchestra short on 1st violins, but it was a respectable reading, & carried every ounce of excitement that Prokofiev intended.
The dancers performed it as a rather elegant vampire courtship. Beautiful costumes, high drama. It’s ballet music, written to be danced to, & made perfect sense that it was included in this competition. Standing O from judges & audience & perfect 10′s across the board. Had they remembered to announce the composer’s name, Prokofiev would probably be up there on the top of the classical charts along with Miss Evancho.
The Viennese waltz to the Rigoletto aria was delightful! I didn’t notice the performance flaws mentioned above, but he wouldn’t be the first tenor to crack a high C in performance. Happens all the time in the opera world.
Instead of condemning this venue why not embrace it? This show is bringing classical music to a huge new audience, providing jobs for musicians, exposure for young vocalists. We should thank our lucky stars that a respected artist like Joshua Bell performed.
Actually, Derek Hough’s dance was a Paso Doble to Prokofiev. They got the perfect 30.
Team Tango danced to Widor – Toccata.
Perhaps the most significant gig old Josh has played all year!
You lost me at “Cannon”
What piece from Vivaldi did Joshua Bell do last night?
“Summer” from The Four Seasons
Isn’t it excactly about reaching out to general audiences that young performers as Joshua Bell are concerned with? I thought it was excactly about bridging the gap that exists between “exclusive” classical and the common music taste!
In my blog – get9lssical.org I not only speak to young and arrived musicians all the time and recognize the need for this generation’s classical musicians- no matter how superb they are- to integrate classical music into the vital night life and general music taste. Perhaps the challenge is to “elevate” new audiences to the classical standards instead of snubbing them and to retreit into one’s own worls of concert halls. The launch of my get classical at the gramercy hotel’s rose bar is trying to excactly that – merging superb classical performance in a salon like environment, into the 21st century New York City nightlife- a chance to reconcile classical performance and the younger generations way of cool night life, over aperitifs ! Best ilona@getclassical.org
For a blog writer you make an awful lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes, in addition to advocating dumbing-down of classical music to the point of it becoming background noise for cocktails. Also, for your information, Joshua Bell is in his mid-forties, not such a young performer anymore.
Amazon’s top 11 Classical albums, as of today, feature two Joshua Bell albums, one Jackie Evancho, and one Vittorio Grigolo, all with green arrows for rising sales. The folks who watched last night’s Dancing with the Stars are buying classical music today, keeping alive the music I live for. I gagged when I saw Bell open the show, but I loved it that they invited him and he did it.
Here are links to the 2 performances I happened to see on last night’s Dancing With the Stars. I thought they were both lovely!
Prokofiev – Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliette ballet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTK0UnOAicA
Verdi’s – La Donna e Mobile” from Rigoletto, with tenor Vittorio Grigolo:
Personally I was thrilled to see Mr. Bell perform on DWTS last night. Being a fan of classical music, I never get to see it performed on network television. Not even on CBS when they host the GRAMMY Awards. In fact, even one of my daughters was so inspired that she has decided to take up violin lessons. Classical music should be available to all and not held close to the chest and doled out to only certain groups of people.
Tracy, Josh Bell’s performance inspiring your daughter a to play the violin alone was enough justification for Josh to be on a “trash” program as someone put it.
I’m certain your daughter is not alone with a new found interest.
Thank you Josh!
Note: DWTS.. the “trash” program it is, has inspired thousands of people to get off their duff and out dancing. Nothing wrong with that!
As an active reader of ArtsJournal, I was disappointed to read your most recent blog post, titled “Joshua Bell played last night on Dancing with the Stars. Why?” Personally, I was thrilled to see him perform live last night. DWTS is one of the most highly watched Monday-night shows, and I think I’ve heard in recent news reports that the last two episodes were their highest watched in the show’s history.
Classical organizations strive to make classical music relevant to all audiences. In the same way that DWTS has made ballroom dance accessible to millions, so does a classical artist’s appearance on the show further the accessibility of classical music. To the general public who does not know about classical music, I’m sure they were thrilled to hear such a virtuosic performance. Additionally, not everyone can afford to purchase tickets to a Joshua Bell concert and this may be the only time they see him perform.
In my opinion, you are underestimating the power of one of America’s most popular TV shows and the effect it can have on advancing careers. Look at many of the stars who have come out on top after participating in the show. I don’t see any harm in Joshua performing on the show. In fact, it will probably be beneficial for his name recognition and getting the public excited about classical music.
His musicianship and virtuosity thrill everyone…whether they are watching in the concert hall or on TV.
I checked the website tvratings.com, and I won’t bother to post the URL because it’s R-E-A-L-L-Y L-O-N-G and the page may go away in a few days anyway. Simply put: Monday’s night’s show was the lowest-rated “Dancing With The Stars” of the season among what is called “the demo”: 18-to-49-year-olds; but the program also gained a “cumulative audience” of up to 16-million viewers (chances are that at no particular time were there 16-million viewers, but counting those who tuned in and tuned out at various times, the total was 16-million). Thus an older audience made up the bulk of those who watched any or all of the show, it appears. There couldn’t have been all that many viewers BELOW 18 except possible for Jacki Evanch fans…and a sidenote: Jackie is now TWELVE!
Dancing was NUMBER ONE monday night.. but nice try….
What was the title of the Vivaldi song played for Team Tango?
They danced to Widor – Toccata (Symphony for Organ No. 5).
The Vivaldi – Summer opened the program.
Follow-up…as often happens, the very first ratings are an approximation, and later in the day, tvbythenumbers said that the preliminary rating for “Dancing With The Stars” was a little low and they adjusted it up Tuesday afternoon.
►► I find it endlessly entertaining to visit this blog… the pomposity of the opera crowd is hilarious… considering it comes from the adherents of a genre that is financially unsustainable, and survives only through charity, and the largess of the public and their tax code.
Opera is like a tuxedoed indigent standing in a soup line with his proboscis permanently and arrogantly in the clouds… who entertains itself by bashing a 12 year old child, because she’s the only one left who can’t defend herself.
There’s an endless list of singers that the ‘opera community’ can critique and beat up on, but they would rather bully a little girl… and then are aghast and feign wonder at why people flood to her defense.
The whole thing is profoundly incongruous… the ‘community’ should consider picking on someone their own size.
This article is unnecessarily demeaning; perhaps the opinion of a spoilt brat/snob. It is not about who plays second fiddle or first. Seeing all of them, dancers and musicians is time well spent and nourishes the heart and soul. DWTS is a spendidly produced and wonderfully entertaining prime time show. Classical week is a wonderful opportunity to showcase great classical artists to a far wider audience on primetime TV; some of whom didn’t previously realize how heartwarming and entertaining classical music can be. I live in the boonies (northern Canada) and it’s just not feasible to see artists in performance. But seeing some of these artists on DWTS made me search out these artists on iTunes so I could add them to my rather basic repertoire of classical. I am enriched and have been entertained by seeing them on DWTS, and will continue to be enriched and entertained for having them on my iPhone.
As one might expect, classical snobbery runs rampant in many of these posts. Maybe the elitists don’t want the ignorant masses listening to classical music. You know, it’s only for educated, cultured audiences. Why, the usual riff raff just wouldn’t understand and appreciate REAL classical music, not this TRAVESTY that has occurred on trash television for the simple minded rabble!
Do they even understand what they sound like? I guess my ears aren’t “cultured”, and you know what? Thank God!
The reviewer here mentions the Joshua Bell performance, and the Katherine Jenkins/Mark Ballas dance to “Canon in D,” and then states that “the rest of the show consisted of waltzes and tangos by such classical eminences as Lady Gaga.” How snobbishly cynical! I counted one – ONE – classical version of a modern pop song, the aforementioned Lady Gaga tune. The REST of the show was, as you might expect, filled with works by the likes of Mozart, Verdi, Prokofiev, German composer Carl Orff, the Theme from “Downton Abbey”, and Jackie Evancho performing “Ave Maria” and “Dark Waltz”; hardly Lady Gaga territory for any of these other songs, so at least get the facts straight before engaging in your sarcastic snootiness!
What is so wrong about attempting to bring classical music to the commercial masses? Bravo Joshua Bell! Keep it up! Don’t listen to these arrogant elitists!
When my son was small he loved watching the old cartoons on the televion…Bugs Bunny etc. The California studios where these were made made excellent use of classical pieces. He was a beginning piano student and I bought an easy book of famous classical pieces and started playing them, knowing he would recognize them. Sure enough, he came rushing up to the piano yelling “CARTOON MUSIC” and proceeded to learn the entire book.