Fresh perspective on classical music manages to draw youthful crowd in Baker Theater on Tuesday.
Classical music ensembles typically do not include Spanish, soul and psychedelic repertoire in its programs. Tuesday night's audience of 60 learned Shuffle Concert is not a typical ensemble.
The audience in Baker Center Theatre was entertained by Shuffle Concert, an original ensemble that brings classical performance style together with popular music from different genres and from several countries.
Shuffle Concert began the evening with a personal selection of “Libertango” by Astor Piazzolla, as the six members always do per tradition. The piece served as a fitting introduction, beginning with just one instrument until each instrument chimed in after each other. Eventually, they all came together into a deep harmony — a harmony that is able to distinguish the individual sounds, but then mesh together and stack up the beauty until the sounds leave the same way they came, one by one.
After “Libertango,” the rules of the evening were explained to the audience.
“Rule No. 1: Every program has a unique number on it,” Eliran Avni, pianist and creative director for Shuffle Concert, said. “A random number generator app on my phone will randomly select a number and the person with that number will choose a song from the program.”
The other pivotal rule in the program was rule No. 3: “Musical styles may not be repeated during a performance.”
“We want you to experience ‘the shuffle effect,’ ” Avni said.
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The first audience-requested song was “You and I” by Stevie Wonder. It was remarkable to watch all of the members seamlessly transition to a pop style, only moments after completing a “tango nuevo” piece. Soprano Ariadne Greif showed her capabilities in the song by surpassing five other instruments on stage in a powerful range.
The musical game of hopscotch created by Shuffle Concert continued with a request for French piece “Sonata for Cello and Piano” by Francis Poulenc.
“This is a very fragmented piece,” Avni said as he prefaced the piece. “Every phase takes us into a different mood.”
Once again, the adaptability and sheer skill of the ensemble is demonstrated in the opening back-and-forth, argument-style playing between the cello and piano.
Next, Shuffle Concert went to the Spanish/Latin circuit with “The Eleven O’Clock Train” by Adoniran Barbosa. The piece shined as another beacon on Greif's vocal range. Her fluent Spanish contributed to a seamless performance.
The variety persisted throughout the performance as songs ranged from works by George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, to music from the Broadway musical Chicago and even to native Israeli music.
“This next piece, entitled ‘Romantika’, is something we brought back from our tour of Israel,” Avni said. “We try to come back with native Israeli music whenever we play there.”
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The evening ended with the most unexpected piece of all: “Peaches En Regalia,” a song by famed guitarist and composer Frank Zappa. Avni described the piece as “the farthest out we’ve ever been.”
Some student attendees were pleasantly surprised by the classical-style performance.
“What I liked about it was that it was so unpredictable,” Sarah Whitmore, a freshman studying interactive design, said. “My number didn’t end up getting called but I heard both the songs I would have requested, so I’m happy.”
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