Dresden Music Festival 2011: Rain & Jan Vogler

Blurring the Boundaries between genres and continents

Classical music and Korean pop met in Semperoper (Semper Opera House), first built in 1841. It is hard to say how many of the attending crowd were there to see Rain and how many were there to see Vogler. One thing is certain, I’ve never attended an event at an opera house were the crowd were screaming like banshees.. or, let’s call them very “passionate” fans (like one overly passionate fan that started to dance along to Hip Song in the aisle).

It was pure madness, and I believe that many classical fans were left a bit scarred.

I guess that is what you get when you have Kpop involved. From being a very small sub-culture, it’s growing to Beatle-hysteria. I believe that the Rain fans tried to behave as well as possible, but even I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Vogler started off the concert with Bach’s Cellosuite No. 1 , a very impressive piece that happens to be one of my favorites. For a minute there I did believe I was at a classical concert, but as soon as that happened, the volume was cranked up revealing Rain on the stage. He started off with Rainism followed of by It’s Raining.

Talk about rocking out the opera house. I don’t think girls have gone this crazy since Mozart’s era.

When combining classical music with mainstream pop, there’s a big challenge to solve. As Vogler explained, “the challenge lied in keeping the essence of each of them.” The show had them doing their own thing, and then getting them together, and back to doing their own thing again. Yes, the show allowed them their own essence to be shared. I doubt that any of the fans that came to see Rain, weren’t a little bit impressed by Vogler. Though many of the people who came to see Vogler must have been a little bit puzzled about Rain. Not only were we listening to pop music at an opera house, it was being sung in Korean — sorry, couldn’t avoid that pun [1], shout out to Colbert!

Overall, the show was a very fulfilling hour where we all got the best of both worlds. I bet Vogler is going to gain some new fans. As I wrote earlier, I myself will certainly look up more from Vogler. Though, a part of me wishes I could have heard some of Rain’s songs completely played by the cello. This concert really left me wanting more. More of Rain’s songs played in only cello and more of Vogler interpreting Rain’s songs. All the possibilities!

Can I ask for another collaboration between them two?

Photo credit: Oliver Killig

Julyssa

Music is all I do: I work in music, I write about music, I listen to music.

2 Responses

  1. Lars says:

    I like the comparing with Mozart, a true pop star back in his days.

  1. May 28, 2011

    […] YAM Magazine 5/23/2011 — by Julili / Photos by Oliver Killig […]

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