Magnus Martensson

| September 13, 2015

Magnus Martensson

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, September 10, 2015

Reviewed by Annamaria Alfieri for Cabaret Scenes

Magnus-Martensson-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212Making people laugh out loud while astonishing them with musical virtuosity was the order of the evening for Magnus Martensson’s appearance. This Swede, following the footsteps of the Danish Victor Borge, is a musical phenomenon. Not only has he served as Music Director of The Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York and conducted operas and concerts around the world, he can play the piano and the violin at the same time, and play with his back to the keyboard and compose waggish poetry simultaneously.

He began by posing as Maurice Ravel and playing the Bolero and then proceeded to transpose the music from Spanish style to French to Norwegian to Viennese, making the audience giggle in the process while maintaining a deadpan worthy of Stan Laurel. He proceeded to play “When the Saints Go Marching In” on a penny whistle while accompanying himself on piano. An extended, very funny musical joke involved the role of the bar pianist in the customers’ romance. Martensson recounted a conversation between two people on a date and demonstrated how the man behind the keyboard might influence the interactions of the would-be lovers by making his musical choices a participant in their conversation.

A few of the jokes fell a bit flat, like his failed attempts to light a candle with every means in the Boy Scout manual. But then came the tour de force of playing selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on piano, violin and by whistling all at the same time. The pièce de résistance of the show was a fictional tour of Beethoven’s love life, using Für Elise played in various styles and accompanied by the names of all the great composer’s pre-Elise girlfriends, including Carmencita, Jane, Carla/Carl, and Gretchen. A woman in the audience laughed so loud and long that things nearly came to a halt. Hilarity: what a way to stop the show!

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Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews

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